Vampire of Hazzard
by stormy.grace
Summary: How does Hazzard County handle a vampire? How does a vampire handle Hazzard County?
1. Kill of the Night

**This is a spin-off of my Dukes of Hazzard story The Duke Girl. For those of you that were following my Vampire of Hazzard series, this is the same story. I simply decided to post it all as one story long story instead of several short stories. My music loving brain has decided to name each chapter after a song I like. The songs don't necessarily match what happens in the chapters, but the titles fit. I'll include the song title and artist name in each chapter for anyone interested in checking them out.**

"**Kill of the Night" - Gin Wigmore**

**Hazzard County, GA, 1983 (takes place three years before The Duke Girl)**

Lori Thomas had been extremely upset when her car had broken down just outside of Hazzard. She was supposed to be in Atlanta tonight, but would have to stay in Hazzard until the local mechanic could fix her car. Hopefully she could leave in the morning.

Of course, she had been lucky today too. She hadn't been stuck on the side of the road for long when two cousins in a garish orange car with the doors welded shut had stopped to help her. When she had explained that they car had just stopped and she didn't know the first thing about engines they had happily offered to give it a look. After a little while they informed her that there was something wrong with her radiator and it needed to be replaced. They had called the local mechanic, who happened to be a good friend of theirs, and offered her a ride to wherever she was going. She hadn't felt right about asking them to drive her all the way to Atlanta, so she had asked them to take her to the nearest hotel. Their names were Bo and Luke Duke, and they had been very kind and very helpful. And very handsome.

But not as handsome as Damon Salvatore, who she had met just a few hours ago when Bo and Luke had taken her to a place called The Boar's Nest for some Hazzard County fun. The bar wasn't exactly her kind of fun, but it hadn't been all bad. She had had a pretty good time, and she had met Damon, who had kindly offered to give her a lift back to the hotel. He was staying there too, and she was in his room right now. Her mother would have a heart attack if she found out, but Lori didn't care what her mother thought of anything she did. And Damon Salvatore was worth whatever trouble he got her into.

He was possibly the best looking man she had ever seen and he looked dangerous in his black leather jacket, black t-shirt, and black jeans. His hair was black too and his eyes were the most piercing shade of blue she had ever seen.

She was currently standing at the window, looking out over Hazzard and wearing his t-shirt. Her blonde curls were mussed and she probably needed to touch up her makeup, but she didn't care. Damon was worth looking like a mess too. She wondered if she'd ever see him again as she turned away from the window and looked at him, lying on his back in bed, his arms folded under his head.

"So," she said. "You never did answer my questions."

"Refresh my memory." He said.

"Where are you from?" she asked.

"A tiny little town in Virginia called Mystic Falls."

Lori smiled. "Mystic Falls. That sounds like something out of a fairy tale."

"More like a nightmare." Damon corrected.

"Troubled childhood?"

"Something like that." He said. "Next question."

"How old are you?"

"How old are you?" he repeated, throwing the question back at her.

"I asked first." Lori said playfully.

"You tell me, I'll tell you." Damon countered.

"Twenty-nine." She said. "You're turn."

"One hundred and forty-four."

Lori giggled. "You sure do look good for your age."

Damon shrugged.

"Seriously." Loris said. "How old are you, Damon Salvatore?"

Damon sat up and looked directly at her. "I'm one hundred and forty-four years old."

"That's impossible."

"Not for a vampire."

Lori blinked at him and giggled again. "A vampire? Those aren't real."

"Oh, but they are." Damon said.

"I don't believe you." She said, ignoring the little voice in her head that was telling her she should be scared. "If you're a vampire, how were you walking around in the sunlight earlier?"

Damon held up his left hand, which was adorned by a large, ornate silver ring. "Magic ring."

Lori was trying hard not to laugh. "You're being so serious! I almost want to believe you really are a vampire."

"I am a vampire." Damon said. "And I'm hungry."

She was about to suggest they go find somewhere to eat but he was across the room in less than a second. She hadn't even seen him move. He was just suddenly standing in front of him, and now she was scared because his face had changed. His eyes were red and when he smiled he had sharp fangs.

"Believe me now?" he asked as his face went back to normal.

Lori stared at him with wide, frightened eyes. "I…What did you mean when you said you were hungry?"

Damon stared into her eyes, and she found that she couldn't look away.

"Don't scream." He said. "Don't run. Don't fight."

She nodded. She wanted to run, but she couldn't. "Okay."

His face changed again and he sank his teeth into her neck. He sucked her dry and left her limp, lifeless body lying in the floor after taking his shirt back. He got dressed and left the hotel room, ready to move on.

"Leaving already?" the man behind the front desk asked as Damon walked into the lobby, wiping the last bit of Lori's blood from his face.

Damon walked over and compelled the man. "There's a girl in my room. She's dead. Take her somewhere remote and burn the body. If anyone comes around looking for her tell them she caught a bus to Atlanta. Her name is Lori Thomas."

The man nodded and Damon walked out of the hotel, thinking that he might have to come back to Hazzard sometime.


	2. The Man in Black

"**The Man in Black" – Johnny Cash**

**Hazzard County, GA, 1996 (ten years after The Duke Girl)**

"Mama! Daddy! Wade bit me again!" April Duke wailed downstairs. "I'm bleeding!"

Twelve-year-old Lacey Duke rolled her eyes and shut her bedroom door. Her sister was such a drama queen. Their little brother did like to bite, but he probably hadn't bitten April hard enough to make her bleed.

Lacey flopped onto her bed and pulled out her diary. She wrote in it every single night after dinner. Even when she didn't have anything interesting to write about. But tonight she did. Tonight she was going to write about the man in black she had met at Hazzard Pond today. He opened the book to a fresh page and began writing.

_Dear Diary,_

_ Emmy and me went fishing today at Hazzard Pond. Daddy and Luke and Daisy and Enos and Uncle Jesse are always telling us stories about all the crazy things that used to happen in Hazzard. I wouldn't believe most of it except that they all have the same story. That wouldn't happen if it wasn't all true._

_ Now me and Emmy have our own crazy Hazzard story to tell. Except Emmy doesn't remember it happened, and I can't ever tell anyone. But I can write about it._

_ Like I said, I took Emmy fishing today at Hazzard Pond. We didn't catch anything. Except the tree Emmy got her line caught up in. And we weren't even fishing anymore! We were walking down the road on the way home and Emmy was goofing off and got her line all tangled up in a tree. I was gonna climb up the tree and untangle it for her, but I didn't have to._

_ Some guy I've never seen before came out of the woods and untangled it for us. He made me think of Johnny Cash because he was dressed all in black, and he had the bluest eyes I've ever seen! He looked like he might be a bad guy, but I wasn't scared of him. I think Emmy was a little._

_ We told him thank you and he walked with us a little way. I told him our names and he said they were pretty names. Then he said his name was Damon, which I thought was kind of a weird name. Well, maybe not weird, but I've never heard it before. Anyway, I asked him if he was from around here and he said he wasn't, but he had been to Hazzard once before. He said he had a really great dinner here. I thought that was kind of weird too. When Emmy asked him where he was from he said he was from a little bitty town in Virginia, but he hadn't been there in a really long time. He never told us the name of the town._

_ I was picking wildflowers for Mama while we walked. Damon asked me what I was doing and I told him. I told him that Mama always likes it when we bring her flowers and things. She thinks their pretty. He said that was nice of me, and then he did something really weird._

_ He looked right into each of our eyes and told us to forget that we had met him. He told us that we would remember that Emmy got her line caught in a tree on the way home and I climbed up there and untangled it. He also said that we'd remember that I picked flowers for Mama because it was a sweet thing to do. Then he was gone. I didn't even see him leave. He just disappeared._

_ When I asked Emmy where he went, she didn't know what I was talking about. I don't know what he did, but he made Emmy forget all about him. His trick didn't work on me though, but I won't tell anyone I saw him. He was strange, but he was nice. I liked him, so I'll keep his secret._

"What are you writing about, Sissy?" April asked as she came into their shared bedroom and climbed onto her own bed.

"What a big goober you are for crying about Wade biting you." Lacey replied and closed and locked her diary.

April stuck out her tongue and held up her arm. "He left a mark!"

Lacey shrugged and stashed her diary in the drawer of her nightstand. "He didn't make you bleed. Don't you dare read my diary. Don't even think about it."

April rolled her eyes. "Why would I want to read your diary? All you ever write about is fishing and stupid stuff like that."

Lacey stuck her tongue out at her little sister and turned out the light. "Go to sleep."

April burrowed under her covers. "Night Sissy. I love you."

"I love you too, April." Lacey replied and fell asleep wondering if she'd ever see Damon again. She hoped so. He was mysterious and she loved mysteries.

**I know those of you that read The Duke Girl were wanting to know what Jesse had to say to Bo about the situation with Shannon and Lacey. Seeing as how I wasn't sure how to address that at the time I ended the story before we got that far, but don't worry! I plan on addressing the issue later in this series somehow. To be perfectly honest, I'm not as in tune to Jesse as I am Boss and Rosco, and I'm not exactly sure how he would've handled the situation. But I promise I'll figure something out. Just hang with me and stay tuned for the nest part of the story!**


	3. Movin' Out

"**I'm Movin' Out" – Billy Joel**

**Hazzard County, GA, 2002**

_Dear Diary,_

_ Sometimes I hate Mr. Fletcher's creative writing assignments. It's hard for me to write on command like that. Especially when he wants us to write poems. I'm not so good at those. But this week he wants short stories, so that's not so bad. Except that I didn't have any ideas. At all. I tried all week and couldn't come up with anything until I went back and read through some of my old journals._

_ I found one entry from when I was twelve. I had gone fishing with Emmy that day and we met a guy named Damon. Somehow he made Emmy forget all about him, but whatever trick he used didn't work on me. I never told anyone about him because he was nice to us, and for some reason he didn't seem to want anyone to know he was in town. A couple of out-of-towners disappeared around then. At first I thought maybe he had something to do with it, but they probably just continued on their way to wherever they were going. I remember thinking he was strange, but he didn't seem dangerous._

_ Anyway, I haven't thought about him in a long time. I used to though. I read some entries after that first one where I wrote about having dreams about him. I haven't dreamt about him in years though, and I had forgotten about him until I read that entry last night. _

_ I stayed up late last night and wrote my short story about a little girl and a mysterious stranger dressed in black. With amazing blue eyes, of course. I turned it in today, and I think I'm going to get an A on it! I know I wrote it, but I think it was really good. Mama and Daddy both said so. Of course I had to lie when they asked where I came up with the idea._

"Are you done writing yet?" April asked from across the room. "I want to go to bed."

Lacey closed her journal with an annoyed sigh and stuffed it in her nightstand drawer.

"Where are you going?" April demanded as her older sister walked out of the room without warning her not to read her diary. April followed out of curiosity.

Lacey found her parents snuggled on the living room couch, watching TV. She planted herself in front of the TV with her arms folded over her chest. "I'm almost eighteen. Why do I _still_ have to share a room with April? We have a guest bedroom."

"For guests." Shannon Duke said.

"What's the problem now?" Bo asked.

"She's being a brat." April said.

Lacey shot her sister a look. "No, I'm not, Daddy. I'm tired of having to live by _her_ schedule. I was in the middle of writing and I can't finish because he wants to go to bed."

"I'm tired!" April exclaimed.

"I don't have to stop writing for you to go to sleep!"

"Yes, you do."

"Why?"

"Because I can't sleep with the light on!"

Lacey rolled her eyes. "Please. My lamp is _not_ that bright. Pull the covers over your eyes."

"Daddy!" April whined.

Bo held up his hands, calling for a stop to the fighting. "That's enough girls. For your information, we've decided to let you have the guest room, Lacey. We were going to surprise you for your birthday."

Lacey squealed and threw her arms around her parents. "Thank you!"

"Why does she get her own room?" April demanded petulantly.

"You get your own room too, goober." Lacey informed her. "Duh."

"Whatever." April turned around and marched back upstairs.

Lacey hugged her parents once more and followed her sister.

"Who's Damon?" April asked when Lacey returned to their room.

April was sitting on Lacey's bed, reading one of her old journals. Lacey lunged at her sister, tackling her and knocking her backwards. "April, I'm gonna kill you!"

April wiggled away, still clutching the journal, and ran out of the room reading in a mimicking voice. "I had another dream about Damon!"

"Give it back!" Lacey screeched, chasing her sister down the hall.

"He has the most amazing blue eyes!" April continued. "I wish I could see him again."

Lacey chased her sister back downstairs and around the dining room table.

"Lacey has a crush! Lacey has a crush!" April sing-songed.

April tried to escape the dining room and crashed into their father. Bo grabbed her to keep her from falling and plucked the book out of her hands. Shannon intervened before Lacey could pounce on her sister.

"Okay you two." She said, holding her oldest child tight around the waist as she struggled to get free. Her younger daughter cowered against her husband. "That's enough of this ridiculous fighting! April, you're grounded this for the weekend for reading your sister's diary. Lacey, you're not going to kill your sister."

Bo handed the diary back to Lacey, giving them both stern looks. "Now both of you go to bed."

Lacey glared at her sister and yanked her hair as she shoved passed her on the stairs. April yelped and Bo reprimanded her. Lacey marched into her room and flung herself on the bed, not ready to go to sleep and angry at her sister. April stomped in after her and turned out the lights.

"Sweet dreams of Damon." April teased.

"Shut up, brat." Lacey hurled a pillow across the room only to have it hurled back at her.

"I'm glad you're moving out."

"So am I." Lacey replied. "Go to sleep."

Despite the fact that she was mad at her sister for reading her diary and teasing her about Damon, Lacey did hope she had sweet dreams about him tonight.


	4. Remember When

"**Remember When" – Alan Jackson**

The sun was going down and it would be dark soon. The stars would come out, and Damon Salvatore planned on staying exactly where he was. Lying on the hood of his blue Camaro convertible. He knew there was a hotel in town. He had stayed there before, but tonight he wanted to stay here and just count the stars. It sounded like something his brother might do, but that was the mood he was in.

Usually he was on his way to Atlanta when he was in Georgia, but he had discovered Hazzard in the mid eighties. The first time he had just been passing through and had met a girl named Lori Thomas. They had danced at a local bar called The Boar's Nest, spent a few hours together in his hotel room, and then he had sucked every last drop of blood out of her body and left. The second time had been pretty much the same. He had been passing through and had dined on a couple of other out-of-towners that had been just passing through. Lucky for him they had had car trouble.

After taking care of the bodies and dumping the car in a lake he had met a couple of little girls walking home from a fishing trip. The younger one had somehow gotten her line caught in a tree, and he had untangled it for them and walked with them a little way down the road. The older one had picked a bouquet of wildflowers for her mother. Her name had been Lacey. Her cousin was Emily, or something similar. She hadn't said much, but Lacey had been very friendly.

He had compelled them to forget meeting him because he was sure one of them would say something to their parents. Not only was it not smart for two little girls to talk to a stranger like they had, but Lacey had said that her last name was Duke. Damon was pretty sure he had met their parents on his first stop in Hazzard, and he certainly hadn't compelled the entire town to forget him.

The sun had almost disappeared when Damon heard a car coming down the old dirt road. He sat up when it pulled up behind his own car and slid off the hood. It was getting dark but he was able to recognize the orange car with the Confederate flag on the roof and the big 01 on either side. Its name, The General Lee, was also painted on either side. This car belonged to Bo and Luke Duke, the very same Dukes he had met back in 1983. But it wasn't either of them that slid out of the window of the welded shut door and walked toward him.

It was a girl in her late teens, dressed in what looked like a pair of red pants and a black shirt with one sleeve. Her dark hair was straight, spilling over her shoulders, and she had one of those choker necklaces that were so popular around her neck. She had a vaguely familiar face, and he quickly realized exactly who he was looking at. Lacey Duke, the girl he had met six years ago that couldn't have been more than thirteen at the time, if that.

Lacey had never seen the car, but she recognized the man instantly. She had written a short story about him just last week. She had gotten that story back today, and she had earned an A on it. She thought about thanking him, but figured it was best to let him think she didn't know who he was.

"Car trouble?" she asked, stopping a couple of feet away from him.

"Ran out of gas." He replied, shrugging.

"Were you planning on sleeping out here?"

He shrugged again. "It's not a bad night for camping."

"The hotel's closed for renovations, but we have a guest room." Lacey said.

"Will your parents mind?"

"They've brought home strays before." She replied. "Southern hospitality and all."

"How do you know I'm not a murderer?" he asked. He had lost count of how many people he had killed over the years, but she had no way of knowing that he had even swatted a mosquito.

Lacey took a step closer. "Are you?"

Yes. But he didn't tell her that. "Maybe."

She smiled, chuckling, and stuck her hand out. "I'm Lacey Duke. Welcome to Hazzard."

He shook her hand. "Damon."

_I know_, she thought. "Damon what?"

"Salvatore."

The tiniest smile flashed across her face as if she had just received the answer to a question she had been asking for a long time.

She turned and walked back to the car, turning back to him before she climbed back through the window. "Coming?"

Damon walked over to the passenger side and pulled on the door handle, pretending he didn't already know it wouldn't open. "Door's stuck."

"It's not stuck." She said as she swung one leg through the window and looked at him over the roof of the car. "It's welded shut. You have to go through the window."

He climbed in and looked at her as she pulled back onto the road and headed for home. "Why are the doors welded shut?"

"My dad and his cousin wanted The General to be like a racecar when they got him." She explained.

Damon noticed that she called the car "him" instead of "it". "I bet you hate that when you borrow it."

"Him." She corrected. "And it doesn't bother me at all. The General's mine now, and I would never dream of unwelding the doors. It'd be like amputating your brother's arm for no reason."

"Clearly you don't know my brother."

She glanced at him. "That bad?"

"He can be." Damon said. He couldn't tell her about Ripper Stefan, but he found that he wanted to. That surprised him. Sharing wasn't his thing either. That was his bunny eating brother. When he wasn't ripping people's heads off, of course.

When they arrived at the little two-story house Damon followed her to the front door and stopped when she walked through.

"What? You're not gonna invite me in?" he said, only half joking. "That's not very hospitable of you."

Lacey smiled at him. "Welcome to my home, Mr. Salvatore. Won't you come in?"

Damon stepped inside and followed Lacey into the living room, where her family was gathered around the coffee table, playing Monopoly.

"Mama? Daddy?" Lacey said, drawing their attention to her. She gestured to Damon, who probably looked exactly like the type of guy they wanted her to stay away from. "This is Damon Salvatore. He ran out of gas outside of town and needs a place to stay the night."

Her mother, who looked like an older version of her, smiled at him. "The guest room's still available. Bo?"

Her father, who didn't look much different than the last time Damon had met him, rose and walked over to shake his hand, eyeing him a little suspiciously. "You're welcome to stay the night, Damon. Bo Duke."

Damon shook his hand. "I appreciate it."

"Have we met before?" Bo asked. "You look a lot like another Damon I met years ago."

"Nope." Damon said, compelling him. "We've never met before."

Lacey was close enough, and paying enough attention, to notice that his pupils dilated.

"Must be a coincidence." Bo said.

"Must be." Damon agreed.

Lacey thought back to the first time she had met Damon. When he had told her to forget meeting him his pupils had dilated too. That must have something to do with whatever trick he had used on Emmy that hadn't worked on her. But why would he need to use it on her father? Unless they _had_ met years ago.

It was then, in the light of her living room, that Lacey realized that Damon didn't look any older than he had when she had first met him. Yes, that had only been six years ago, but people were bound to age a little in six years, right?

Two questions popped into her head.

Who, or what, was this guy, and should they really be letting him stay in their house?


	5. The Truth

"**The Truth" – Jason Alsean**

April emerged from upstairs, clearly curious about what was going on downstairs. She took in the scene from the bottom step. Her sister and father standing in the foyer with some dark stranger, her mother and brother sitting at the coffee table, waiting for the game to resume.

"Who's this, Lacey?" she asked, drawing everyone's attention her way. "You're new boyfriend?"

Lacey rolled her eyes at her sister and huffed. "No. This is Damon. He ran out of gas and needs a place to stay."

April's eyebrows went up slightly, recognizing the uncommon name. She looked at him and realized he fit the description she had managed to read while her sister had been trying to catch her to strangle her the other night. Black hair, black clothes, blue eyes. What was her sister up to?

Lacey saw April putting the pieces together and silently begged her not to say anything. For a distraction, she quickly introduced Damon to the rest of the family and showed him upstairs to the guest room. She was digging towels out of the linen closet when April grabbed her and dragged her into their bedroom.

"April!" Lacey exclaimed as she dropped the towels in the hall. "What's wrong with you?"

"_Damon_?" April said. "Is that the same guy I read about in your diary?"

"No." Lacey said quickly. "Of course not."

April stepped back, sticking out her hip and folding her arms over her chest. "Really? Because he's got the same name, and he looks a lot like the guy you wrote about. Does Daddy known you've got a crush on the stranger you brought home?"

"I do not." Lacey argued. "Drop it, April. It's none of your business anyway."

"You're blushing, Lace." April pointed out. "You _do_ have a crush on him! How many times have you met him? He is your secret boyfriend, isn't he? How old is he? I bet Mama and Daddy would freak."

Lacey grabbed her sister and pushed her against the wall, clapping her hand over her mouth. "April, stop talking. I've only met him once before tonight, he is _not_ my secret boyfriend, and I have no idea how old he is. And none of it matters."

"But you do like him." April said, smirking as soon as Lacey removed her hand. "You like him, and he's spending the night in your future bedroom."

"Shut up, April." Lacey hissed. "He'll stay the night, they'll get gas in his car tomorrow, and he'll be gone."

April gave her sister a confused look, narrowing her eyes and searching her face. "You want him gone, don't you?"

"I never said that."

"Who is this guy, Lacey?"

"I don't know." Lacey admitted and ran out of the room before April could grill her anymore. Her intention was to gather up the towels and deliver them to Damon, but she found him crouched in the hallway, picking the up himself. "I've got that. You're a guest."

Damon flashed a crooked half smile as she kneeled beside him and tried to take the towels from him. "You do realize you're just going to hand these right back to me, right?"

Lacey felt her face turn red as she realized how silly she was being. She let go of the towel she was trying to tug out of his hands and stood up, pushing her hair back from her face. "Um…"

Damon stood and looked at her. "Does it bother you that I'm here? I can go back to my car."

"No. Don't be silly." She argued. "Of course it doesn't bother me."

He squinted a little, like April had a little bit ago. "Something's bothering you. What is it?"

Lacey looked around to make sure no one else was in the hall and lowered her voice. "What are you?"

Damon looked slightly confused. "Excuse me?"

She sighed and pushed him into the guest room, shutting the door behind them. "What are you?"

Damon tossed the towels on the bed and shrugged. "I'm just a guy passing through town."

Lacey shook her head, not buying his answer. "No. I saw what you did downstairs. That thing with your eyes. What was that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Damon said, pretending to be completely innocent.

"Yes you do." She paused before continuing, wondering if she should really reveal her secret. She decided that she wouldn't get any answers if he thought he was still in the clear. But if he knew she knew this wasn't the first time they had met, maybe he would come clean and tell her what was going on. "It was the same thing you did to me and Emmy six years ago."

Damon looked completely blindsided. "What?"

"I remember meeting you when I was twelve, Damon." She explained. "Whatever you did made Emmy forget, but it didn't work on me. And you used the same trick on my dad just now."

Damon's eyes narrowed again and realization passed over his face. "You were picking vervain flowers."

Now it was her turn to be confused. "What?"

"The flowers you were picking for you mother." He said. "I didn't realize it then, but they were vervain flowers. They must've been."

"Why does it matter what kind of flowers they were?" she asked.

"Because that's why my little trick didn't work on you." He said.

"Damon, you're not making any sense. I don't understand."

Damon sighed. "I'm a vampire, Lacey. Blood-sucking undead. As a vampire I have the ability to compel people. I can make you forget, or remember, or _do_, whatever I want. Unless you have vervain in or on you. You were holding vervain when I tried to compel you, and it didn't work."

Lacey stared at him for a moment beginning to feel afraid, but not because he was a vampire. She was starting to feel afraid because he seemed to actually think what he was saying was true. "You're crazy."

He sighed because he knew where this was going. It was eerily similar to the situation with Lori Thomas, except he had no intentions of killing Lacey. "I'm not crazy. I'm a vampire."

Lacey started to go downstairs and let her parents know that she had made a mistake and brought a crazy man home, but when she turned around, Damon was standing in front of the door, blocking her way out. She glanced over her shoulder, checking to make sure she wasn't going crazy herself, but no one was behind her.

"How…"

"Vampire." Damon explained. "We're fast."

"I…"

"Don't believe me?" he finished. "Of course not. Why would you?"

Lacey had no idea what to do or say. He was blocking the door, and she didn't think she could get to the window fast enough if this vampire speed thing was real. She hadn't even seen him move!

"Vampires aren't real." She said, trying to convince herself that she wasn't in danger right now.

She didn't even have time to blink before he had her pinned against the door. Now she was definitely scared. She started to scream, but he covered her mouth with his hand.

"Don't scream." He said, compelling her. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just going to prove that I'm not crazy."

Lacey was terrified, but she couldn't move. He was too strong. And although she wanted to scream, she didn't because he had said not to. She wanted to, but she couldn't. She was wondering exactly how he was going to prove he wasn't crazy when his face suddenly changed, which only scared her more. He certainly looked like a vampire with his red eyes and fangs. For a moment she thought he was going to bite her, but he had said he wasn't going to hurt her.

His face went back to normal and he let go of her, backing away slowly. "Now you can go tell your parents that you let a monster into the house. I won't stop you."

Lacey didn't run. She stayed where she was and stared at him. "Are you going to hurt my family?"

"No." Damon replied honestly.

She nodded, accepting his answer although she knew perfectly well that he could be lying. But he had said he wouldn't hurt her, and he hadn't. He had just scared her. "The sun was up when I met you the first time. I thought vampires couldn't be in the sun."

"Most can't." Damon said, holding up his hand. "I have a magic ring that keeps me from burning."

Lacey looked at the big, ornate silver ring on his hand. What he was saying was crazy, but she believed him. "Okay."

"You're wondering how to kill me, aren't you?"

"No."

"You should be."

"I don't want to kill you." She admitted, even though she knew she should.

Damon sat down on the bed, putting more space between them. "If you ever change your mind, you'll need a wooden stake. Not that it'll do you much good, because I can easily snap your neck before you can even blink."

For some reason that didn't scare her as much as it should. She had other questions, but right now she was too tired to ask them. She started to leave, but turned back to him when she remembered that he was a guest in her home. "Are you hungry?"

"Are you offering?" he asked.

"Yes…I mean…" she paused, no longer sure what she was asking. "Do you even…"

"Eat food?" Damon supplied. "I can, but it doesn't really do anything for me. I'm a vampire. I need blood to survive. And since you asked, I am a little peckish."

"I don't really know what to do now." Lacey admitted. "We don't usually keep blood in the house."

"Most people don't."

Having been raised the way she had been, she couldn't just walk away and let him go hungry. Especially since someone could get hurt, or killed, if she did. "You said you wouldn't hurt me."

"Do you trust me?"

"I shouldn't." she said, as she reached up and unhooked her choker. She pulled her hair over one shoulder. "But I do."

Damon got up and walked over to her. "Are you sure?"

"I can't let you go hungry." She tilted her head so that he could get to her neck easily. "Will it hurt?"

"Sinking my teeth into your neck and sucking your blood out?"

She winced at the thought and he backed away.

"I'll be fine." He said.

"No." she shook her head and moved closer to him. "It's okay. I can handle it."

He was hungry so he didn't give her another chance to back out. If she was willing to let him feed off her, and trusted him to control himself and not kill her, he was going to take advantage of the situation. Stefan would shove her out of the room and go find a deer or something, but he wasn't Stefan. He preferred human blood, and the fact that she was a willing donor made it much easier.

Lacey gasped as he bit into her neck and held onto him because she wasn't sure she could stand on her own. It didn't hurt as much as she had thought it would, but it was a strange experience to have someone sucking your blood out of your body. She hoped neither of her parents decided to check and make sure Damon had gotten settled alright. She wasn't sure how she would explain this if they did.

Damon drank just enough to hold him through the night and stepped back, wiping her blood from his face.

She grabbed a tissue form the nightstand and pressed it to the bite mark.

Damon bit into his own wrist and held it out for her. "Drink."

"What?" she asked staring at his bleeding wrist. Did he really want her to drink his blood?

"Don't worry. It won't turn you into a vampire or anything." He assured her. "You'd have to die with it in your system for that to happen."

"So it will turn me into a vampire."

"Only if you die before it's out of your system." He repeated. "As long as you don't die, you're fine."

"Why do I need to drink your blood?" she asked.

"Vampire blood heals." He explained. "It'll take car of that bite mark so you don't have to worry about hiding it."

"I don't guess it's any stranger than anything else that's happened tonight." She said as she took his arm and hesitantly sucked on his wrist. For some reason she hadn't expected his blood to taste like blood, but it did. She gagged a little when she swallowed. It wasn't as if drinking someone's blood was a normal thing for her.

She looked in the mirror over the dresser and watched in amazement as the wound on her neck slowly disappeared.

"All better." Damon said.

She gave him a small smile, still slightly freaked out over the whole thing, and turned for the door. "If you need anything I'm right across the hall."

He nodded and she left, feeling as if she had just done something that would get her into big trouble. Maybe it was because the secret she had been holding onto for six years had just turned into something completely different. Not only had she brought a vampire home, but she had let him drink her blood. And then she had drunk his.

Boss Hogg was dead and Rosco was retired, but strange, crazy things still happened in Hazzard.


	6. Goodbye Time

"**Goodbye Time" – Conway Twitty (Blake Shelton also has a version of this song)**

The next morning Damon joined the family for breakfast, noticing the odd looks April was giving him. He wondered if Lacey had told her that he was a vampire as he thanked the Dukes once more for letting him spend the night in their guest room and complemented Shannon on her cooking abilities. He kindly offered to help with the dishes after breakfast, but his offer was politely declined.

He followed the Duke kids back upstairs, discreetly grabbing Lacey and pulling her into the guest room. "Did you tell your sister about me?"

"Of course not!"

"Be honest." He compelled her.

"I _am_ being honest." She insisted. "I didn't say anything to anyone. Stop compelling me."

"Then why was she giving me suspicious looks at breakfast?" Damon demanded.

Lacey sighed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Because she's a suspicious person. I wrote about you in my diary after I met you the first time, and she read it. Now she thinks you're the same guy."

"I am the same guy."

"Yeah, well she thinks something's going on between us." Lacey explained. "She thinks we've met more than twice and that you're my secret boyfriend. Last night she accused me of sneaking in here to make out with you."

Damon simply grinned.

"Stop that!" she said. "I didn't tell you that so you could make fun of me."

"I'm sorry." Damon apologized, his smile not quite disappearing. "Do you want me to compel her to forget what she read?"

"Yes." Lacey replied. "But only because I don't want her blabbing to my parents that we've met before and planting that whole secret relationship thing in their heads. I don't think they'd be too happy about that."

"Why not?" he asked curiously.

She gestured to his outfit. "For one thing, you don't exactly look like the nicest guy in the world. Not that they judge people by how they look, but…"

"I got it."

"And you're a little older than I am." She continued.

"More than a little." He corrected. "I've been around for a long, long time, Lacey."

"Was it you that my dad met years ago?" she asked.

"He made it sound like it was a lifetime ago." Damon said. "It was only 1983."

"That's more than a lifetime for me."

They fell into a short silence before Damon spoke again. "I'll compel April to forget what she read."

"Thank you." She said. "I should go get ready for school. Do you need…more blood?"

"It wouldn't hurt, but I won't make you." He said, wondering what it was about this girl that made him like her so much. He actually wanted to be nice to her.

She pulled her hair out of the way and tilted her head. "I did it once."

Damon fed and let her drink some of his blood to heal the wound before she went back to her room to get ready for school. When April came out of the bathroom Lacey brought her to the guest room and Damon compelled her to forget that she had read Lacey's diary. Lacey informed him that her parents knew about it too, and he assured her that he would take care of it.

"You'll probably be gone by the time I get home from school." Lacey said before left. "Will you come back?"

"I might." He said. "But probably not for a while. Vampires don't age and people might get suspicious."

She nodded. "Well, I'm glad you came back this time."

He smiled at her. He didn't say so, but he was glad he had come back too. "Now that you know about vampires, you should start drinking vervain tea. Or put it in your water or something so you can't be compelled. You can put it in jewelry and stuff too."

"Okay." She didn't know what vervain looked like, but she could look it up online later. Right now she had to go to school or she would be late. Her siblings were waiting for her. "Well, bye."

"Bye." He repeated.

She was halfway out of the room when she decided to take a chance. She would probably never see him again anyway. She spun around and gave him a quick kiss on the lips before running downstairs and out of the house.


	7. Walkin' After Midnight

"**Walkin' After Midnight" – Patsy Cline**

**Nashville, TN, June 2002**

Damon wasn't a huge country music fan, but he enjoyed Nashville. Especially during the week of Fan Fair. Thousands of country music fans flocked to the city to see and meet their favorite artists. He attended every year, and each year at least one of those fans didn't make it home.

Back in the seventies, when he his humanity had still been off, he hadn't cared at all about those fans or what their families would think when their loved ones mysteriously disappeared. Now, deep down inside, he cared, but he ignored those feelings.He was a vampire after all. Usually he tried not to kill people, but sometimes he slipped up and there was nothing that could be done. It was simply the nature of the beast. Vampires could survive on animal blood, like Stefan did, but that wasn't Damon's style. He enjoyed feeding off humans and he didn't let it get to him when he killed one.

"Is this your first Fan Fair?" the bar tender at Tootsie's asked.

A skinny kid in a cowboy hat that didn't fit quite right was on the tiny stage in the corner, strumming on a guitar and singing original song after original song. It was the middle of the day, and during a normal business day there probably wouldn't be too much of a crowd, but it was Fan Fair and everyone wanted to go to the legendary Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. Unfortunately for the guy on the stage, none of those people were interested in his performance. It wasn't that he wasn't any good, because he did have a decent voice. It was that he was only playing his own songs that no one had ever heard of, and most of those songs weren't so good.

"I come every year." Damon replied as the singer announced that he was going to take a break.

"Who's your favorite artist?" the bar tender asked in an obviously fake Southern accent. At least she was cute.

"Patsy Cline." He said. "Her music helped me through a tough time."

It was a statement any fan might make about their favorite artist, and the bar tender bought it even though she looked like she didn't really know who Patsy Cline was.

In reality Patsy hadn't helped him through anything. He had just had no choice but to listen to her when he had been locked in a cell during his Augustine days back in the fifties. If he were to be honest about it, he hated the song "Walkin' After Midnight" solely because it reminded him of the days when he had been 20151.

The singer walked over and hopped on the bar stool beside Damon. He ordered a beer and shot Damon a grin, sticking his hand out. "Grant Marshall."

"Hi." Damon said dryly, not in the mood to talk.

Grant looked at him expectantly, his gaze unwavering.

Damon sighed and shook his hand. "Damon."

"First time in Music City?" Grant asked.

"Nope." Damon replied. "You?"

Grant laughed. "Heck! I've been here three years."

"And you haven't got a record deal yet?" Damon asked, feigning shock.

"Not yet." Grant said. "But I'm not giving up."

"Maybe if you find some songs that don't suck you'll have a better shot."

Grant looked like Damon had just slapped him, but Damon didn't really care.

"I write my own songs." Grant said.

Damon stood up. "Maybe that's the problem." He motioned for Grant to follow him. "Take a walk with me, Grant."

Grant hesitated, but followed. Damon led him out the front door and around the side of the building. They ducked into the alley behind the bar and stopped. Damon pointed at the red brick building behind the bar. "Do you know what this is?"

"Of course." Grant said. "The Ryman."

"The Ryman Auditorium." Damon said. "One of the most important stages in country music. The former home of the Grand Ole Opry. I bet you'd like to play the Opry sometime, wouldn't you Grant?"

Grant grinned. "What country artist wouldn't want to play the Opry?"

"Well, that's not going to happen."

"Why not?"

"Two reasons." Damon said, slinging his arm across Grant's shoulders. "One, your songs suck, and two, you won't be around long enough."

"What makes you think that?" Grant asked.

"Because I'm going to kill you." Damon informed him.

Grant looked terrified and tried to run, but Damon was too fast. He could have sucked all of the blood out of Grant's body, but he didn't feel like it. Instead he simply snapped his neck and left him in the alley, walking away as if nothing had happened. He began whistling "Walkin' After Midnight" as he made his way back to Tootsie's.

"What's your name?" he asked the bar tender.

"Kristy."

Damon smiled at her. "What are you doing for dinner tonight, Kristy?"

"I don't have any plans." She replied. "Are you askin' me out?"

"Yes, I am."

"I don't even know your name."

"My name is Damon Salvatore."

Kristy smiled. "You seem like a nice enough guy. I'd love to go to dinner with you."

"It's a date." Damon said, grinning.

What Kristy didn't know was that she would _be_ dinner.


	8. I Still Believe In You

"**I Still Believe in You" – Vince Gill**

_Dear Diary,_

_ This year's Duke family reunion is in Nashville for Fan Fair! Rosco, Cooter, and Cletus even came with us! They're family too, after all. Even if Rosco and Cletus did help Boss Hogg try to take the farm and put Daddy and Luke in jail more times than anyone can remember. If Boss was still alive, he'd probably be with us too._

_ The really cool thing is that Jessi Colter offered to let us all stay at her house since Uncle Jesse and Waylon were such good friends! We're in a hotel though because there's just too many of us, but she insisted on paying for us. I tried to talk Mama and Daddy into letting me have my own room since I'm eighteen now, but I lost that battle and I'm stuck with Emmy and April. Emmy's my best friend, so I'm okay with that, but April is a thirteen year old brat, and all she's done is whine._

_ Another cool thing is that Daddy let me jump a ravine in The General on the way out of Hazzard. Him and Luke used to do it all the time when Rosco was chasing them, but he doesn't like me to. I know he's my dad, and he just wants me to be safe, but sometimes I think I'm way too much like him. He taught me how to drive in The General and he taught me how to jump in The General. Then he said I can't! I think Mama maybe had something to do with it, because she never did like the way the Dukes drive. But she's from New York City and she just doesn't understand what it's like to grow up in the country._

"Lace, let's go!" Emmy urged. "You can write later. Nashville is calling!"

Lacey smiled at her cousin and stashed her diary in her suitcase. "Are you coming April?"

"No." April said. "_I _didn't want to come on this trip at all."

"Fine." Lacey said, knowing exactly how to get her sister out of the hotel room. "You can stay here and hang out with the parents and the kids."

April weighed her options and eventually decided to go with them. They let their parents know that they were going to explore Broadway and hurried out of the hotel. It was hot and sunny outside, and there were tourists everywhere. Lacey and Emmy were already excited, and April quickly got in the mood for adventure as well.

"Let's go to the Ryman!" Emmy said.

"We can't go in." April reminded her. "Don't you have to pay?"

Lacey shrugged. "We can still go look at it and take some pictures."

They grabbed each others hands and practically ran to the Ryman, all three of them giggling and talking at the same time.

"Look!" Lacey said, pointing to a lilac painted building. "There's Tootsie's! I wonder if we can go in."

"You can." April said. "You're eighteen."

Lacey shrugged. "Let's check out the Ryman first. We can come back later and see if we can go in Tootsie's."

The girls agreed and they continued down 5th Avenue toward the historic church.

April stopped as they were passing the alley behind Tootsie's. "Lacey, Emmy, look. There's a guy passed out over there."

Lacey looked to where her little sister was pointing and saw a young guy, probably not much older than she was, lying on the ground. His hat was on upside down beside his head, which was at an odd angle. It was hot out, and he could have passed out, but she didn't think that was the case.

"You two go on to the Ryman and wait for me on the steps." She told her cousin and sister.

The younger girls gave her weird looks.

"Why?" April demanded.

"Just go!" Lacey commanded, pointing toward the red brick building a few feet away.

As they walked away, both looking confused over her sudden mood swing, she walked into the alley for a closer look at the guy on the ground. She'd never seen a dead body before, but she was almost certain she was looking at one now. She nudged the guy with her boot, but he didn't make even the tiniest sound. His eyes were open, and when she knelt down beside him she found that he wasn't breathing. She picked up his wrist and felt for a pulse. Nothing. This man was dead.

Lacey forced herself not to panic and stood up. She walked out of the alley and turned back toward Broadway. No one seemed to notice the scared look on her face or the fact that she was practically hyperventilating as she made her way to Tootsie's to see if she could use their phone to call the police. When she stepped inside the air conditioned building she was stunned to see Damon Salvatore sitting at the bar, flirting with the bar tender.

She froze in the doorway for a moment until she got over the shock of seeing him, and walked over to the bar. "Excuse me."

The red headed bar tender, stopped smacking on her gum and flashed her a smile. "What can I getcha, honey?"

"Lacey." Damon said when he saw her, sounding just as surprised to see her as she was to see him.

Lacey ignored Damon and kept her gaze on the bar tender. "Can I use your phone?"

"Did you get lost?" she asked. "Need to call your parents?"

"No." Lacey replied, becoming annoyed. "I need to call the police. There's a man out in the alley."

The bar tender laughed. "That's nothin' to call the police about! There's always people out in the alley."

"Are those people usually dead?" Lacey asked.

The bar tender looked terrified. "Oh my god. He's dead?"

Lacey nodded. "He's not breathing, he has no pulse, and I think his neck is broken."

"Oh my god!" the bar tender repeated. "I'll call the police. You sit down. Do you want some water, or something?"

Lacey shook her head and remained standing. "No. Thank you."

"Are you by yourself?" Damon asked.

"No. My whole family is in town." She replied. "I was with Emmy and April when I found him."

"Where are they now?"

"Waiting for me at the Ryman. I should go."

Damon grabbed her arm as she turned to leave. "You need to stay here and talk to the police. Sit down. I'll go get Emmy and April."

She nodded and climbed up on a bar stool as Damon got up to leave.

The bar tender hung up the phone and turned back to her. "Are you okay, honey? You sure you don't want some water, or something?"

"I'm fine." Lacey said. "Are the police coming?"

"They're on their way." She said. "What's your name?"

"Lacey."

"I'm Kristy."

Lacey looked at her. "Are you trying to distract me?"

"And me." Kristy admitted. "So, you know Damon?"

"We've met before." Lacey said.

"I was goin' out with him tonight." Kristy said. "Now I'm not sure I'll be up to it."

"He asked you out?" Lacey asked, suddenly feeling a little jealous.

Kristy nodded. "I don't usually go for guys like him, but he seems nice."

"Guys like him?"

"The dark, dangerous lookin' ones." Kristy clarified. "I usually like guys more like the one that was up there singin' earlier, Grant Marshall. He's a sweetheart, but he should've been back from his break by now."

Lacey felt sick to her stomach. "Was he wearing a green plaid shirt and jeans?"

Kristy nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

"He's not coming back from his break." Lacey explained. "I hate to tell you this, but I think that's him out in the alley."

Kristy let out a shriek and ran out the back. Lacey regretted her words instantly and followed Kristy, grabbing her as she saw the body. Kristy let out another shriek and tried to get free, but Lacey was able to drag her back inside. The customers gave them strange looks as Damon came back alone.

"Where's Emmy and April?" Lacey demanded as he helped her pick Kristy up out of the floor and get her to a chair.

A couple of police officers arrived just then.

"I sent them back to the hotel." He informed her. "They don't need to get involved in this."

Lacey nodded as one of the officers came over.

They closed the bar and talked to everyone inside, asking if they had seen anything. Lacey told them everything she knew, and was surprised when she overheard one of the customers say that they had seen Grant leave the bar with Damon earlier. Damon had come back alone. She stared at him as the police asked him questions. He told them that he had talked to Grant a little and they had left the bar together, but they had spilt up at the corner. Grant had gone off toward the Ryman and Damon had realized he'd left his wallet in the bar and gone back for it.

When they were allowed to leave, Damon offered to walk her back to her hotel. She accepted his offer, and remained silent for an entire block.

"You did it, didn't you?" she demanded as they walked down the sidewalk surrounded by other fans. "You killed him."

"He pissed me off." Damon said as if it were nothing.

Lacey stopped and stared at him, forcing people to walk around her. "He pissed you off?"

"Yeah." Damon said.

"So you thought it was okay to just…break his neck and leave him in an alley?"

Damon moved closer, leaving less than two inches of space between their faces. "I'm a vampire, Lacey. Remember? Vampires kill people."

She glared at him. "But you don't have to. You didn't kill anyone when you were in Hazzard."

"Are you so sure about that?" he asked. "Didn't you think it was just a little strange that I was wandering around in the woods?"

She started to explain that she had only been twelve and hadn't been concerned with why he was in the woods, when something clicked in her brain. Her brown eyes went wide and she took a step back. "Those out-of-towners that disappeared. You…you killed them, didn't you?"

Damon gave her a look that said _duh_. "I got rid of the bodies and I dumped their car in the lake so everyone would think they just continued on their way."

Lacey felt her eyes fill with tears as she stared at him. "How many people have you killed?"

"I never kept track." Damon replied. "That would be a Stefan thing."

She ignored the fact that she had no idea who Stefan was. "How many people did you kill the last time you were in Hazzard? Did Henry Garvey really break his neck falling down the stairs when his hip broke, or did you throw him down the stairs after you killed him?"

"I have no idea who Henry Garvey is." Damon said. "I promise you I didn't touch one person in Hazzard the last time I was there."

"Why not?" she demanded, her voice catching as she fought hard not to cry. "It's what you do, isn't it?"

Damon grabbed her arm and pulled her along because he was tired of arguing in the middle of the sidewalk with sweaty tourists milling around. "Because I said I wouldn't hurt you."

"I'm not Henry Garvey."

"No, but for all I know Henry Garvey is one of your cousins." Damon said. "You may be different, but most people are hurt when one of their loved ones gets killed."

She stopped again, oddly touched. "So, you left everyone alone because you didn't know which ones I might know? Guess what, I know everyone in Hazzard. It's a small town, and I care about every single one of them."

"Then I'll try not to kill anyone from Hazzard." He said.

"But you're okay with killing other people that aren't from Hazzard?"

"Vampires have to eat too, Lacey."

"But you didn't drink Grant Marshall's blood." She practically yelled, forgetting that she was angrily discussing vampirism in a crowd. "You just killed him. How can you justify that?"

Damon pulled her off to the side, out of the walkway and looked at her. "I'm sorry, you're so upset about it, but I can't take it back. I have a temper, and I was in a bad mood. He annoyed me and I killed him. I can't unkill him, Lacey. He's dead. I'm…"

"A vampire." She finished. "Yeah. I know. And you're not the man I thought you were."

"I was _never_ the man you thought I was." Damon hissed at her. "Not for a long, long time anyway."

"So you were a decent human being at one point in time?" she spat back.

"Yeah. When I _was_ a human." He said. "Back in the 1860s I was a great guy. You would've loved me. But bad things happened, and I'm not a great guy anymore. I'm a bad guy."

Suddenly she realized what he was doing. "You're not defending yourself."

"What?" he asked, looking a little thrown off. "No. Of course I'm not defending myself. I'm trying to make you understand who I am."

"No, you're trying to make me understand who you want me to think you are." She said. "You're trying to scare me away. You're trying to keep me safe."

Damon stared at her for a moment, unsure of how to respond. Finally he sighed. "Fine. You win."

"I'm still mad at you for killing that guy for no reason." She announced.

"Good. Hold on to that anger." He said. "Be mad, be angry. Stay away from me. I'm not good for you. I'm not good for anyone. I'm a bad, bad man, and you should be very afraid of me. I don't want to hurt you, but I have a hard time controlling my anger and I could do more than hurt you."

"You're wrong." She said. "You may be an awful, terrible murderer, but that great guy that you used to be? He's still in there. You wouldn't be trying so hard to protect me from yourself if there wasn't still some good left in you."

Damon simply stared at her. She was right, of course, but he wasn't about to admit it.

Lacey could tell by the look on his face that she was not only right, but had struck a nerve. He wanted to be good, but he was afraid of what might happen if he let people see that side of him.


	9. Welcome to the Family

"**Welcome to the Family" – Little Big Town**

**I made a mistake with chapter 3. The song is actually "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" by Billy Joel.**

"Home, sweet home." Bo announced as he parked The General in the driveway.

After discovering Grant Marshall's body, and promising Damon that she wouldn't tell anyone that he had done it, she hadn't felt like staying in Nashville for the rest of the week. She had wanted to enjoy Fan Fair with her family, but not if Damon was there, killing innocent tourists. She didn't want to know about anymore deaths at his hands.

While she didn't believe he was truly evil, she decided to do what he wanted her to do and stay away from him. Even if he never hurt her, or anyone she cared about, it couldn't be all that safe to be involved in any kind of relationship with a vampire. So she had asked to come home by herself, not wanting to ruin anyone else's week, but Bo had insisted on coming home with her. After what had happened, she hadn't fought him too hard on the independence issue this time.

As Bo pulled into the driveway they noticed an unfamiliar car in the driveway, and an unfamiliar woman on the porch. Lacey sat up a little straighter, trying to make out the woman's face.

"I wonder who that could be." Bo said, curiously.

Lacey gave him a teasing smile. "She's probably one of the girls whose hearts you broke back in the day."

"She's too young to be one of my old flames." He pointed out.

"Well, maybe she's my sister." Lacey suggested. "You've been known to slip up."

"You're not funny, little lady." Bo said dryly. His face was serious, but his eyes were smiling at her. "That only happened once. Uncle Jesse would've killed me."

"Why didn't he when Mama showed up with me?" Lacey asked.

"He didn't take it lightly." Bo explained. "After your mother left he chased me around the barn giving me a piece of his mind. I thought he was gonna tan my hide, but I guess he didn't want to embarrass me in front of my kid."

Lacey giggled at the image of her old Uncle Jesse chasing her dad around the barn and yelling at him for not being more responsible. "He probably should've whooped you good."

"Probably." Bo agreed as they climbed out of the car. "But my pride's glad he didn't."

Lacey went around to the trunk to start hauling in their luggage while Bo walked over to the porch.

"Can we help you, miss?" he asked.

The woman, who didn't look much older than Lacey, rose from her seat on the top step and smiled. "Are you Bo Duke?"

"Yes, ma'am." Bo said.

She stuck her hand out. "My name's Shelby Westcott."

Bo shook her hand as Lacey came up behind him. "Welcome to Hazzard, Ms. Westcott. This is my daughter, Lacey. What can we do for you?"

Lacey's hands were full so she flashed the woman a friendly smile.

Shelby Westcott smiled back. "I'm Shannon's cousin, actually. I'm sorry to just drop in like this, but we haven't seen each other in a long time and I thought it was about time for a little family reunion."

Bo smiled as Lacey slipped passed Shelby and carried the bags inside. "Shannon's actually up in Nashville for our reunion, but you're welcome to come in."

Shelby followed him inside. "How come you two came back?"

"I witnessed a murder." Lacey announced.

Shelby's brown eyes widened in alarm. "Oh my."

"Lacey." Bo chided.

"Okay." Lacey said. "So I didn't actually see it happen, but I did find the guy."

_And I know exactly what happened, who did it, and why. _But she couldn't say that.

"It kind of killed my celebratory mood." Lacey explained, laughing a little at the irony of her word choice.

Bo was a little surprised at her April-like attitude, but didn't say anything. She had found dead body after all. He turned back to Shelby as Lacey went back out for the rest of the bags. "Shannon and the rest of the family will be in Nashville for the rest of the week, but you're welcome to stay here if you want."

Lacey had expected the offer, but she hoped that Shelby didn't want to stay here. They no longer had a guest room, and she would either be temporarily kicked out of hers or have to share it with some mystery cousin she had never heard about.

"That would be great!" Shelby announced.

Lacey's hope was crushed and she let out a silent sigh as she stepped back inside. "You can stay in my room."

Shelby smiled at her, but shook her head. "Oh no! I don't want to kick you out of your room. I can find a hotel."

Lacey wanted to tell her go ahead and do so, but she saw the look on her father's face. She pasted a smile on her face. "It's no problem. I'll just stay in my sister's room. She's not here to complain."

Shelby hesitated, but finally agreed and Lacey showed her to her room after she grabbed her bag from her car.

"I'm really sorry to kick you out of your room." Shelby apologized.

Lacey brushed it off. It really wasn't that big of an inconvenience. "It's no problem. Really. I used to share the room with my sister before I moved to this one. I'll be right at home."

"That southern hospitality thing isn't a joke, is it?"

"Not in Hazzard." Lacey confirmed. "And definitely not when a Duke is involved."

Shelby smiled. "Then I guess I'm glad my cousin decided to marry a Duke."

Lacey wondered if Shelby knew the details of the situation. Shannon and Bo hadn't done things the conventional way. She had been four before her parents finally admitted they had fallen in love and got married. She had been the flower girl, but didn't remember any of it.

"I've never heard my mother mention any cousins." Lacey blurted, now suspicious of anyone thanks to Damon. At least, if Shelby was a vampire she couldn't compel her. Lacey had been wearing a leather bracelet that she soaked in vervain water every night. "How exactly are you related to me?"

Shelby sat down on Lacey's bed and smiled at her, seemingly unoffended. "Our grandmothers were sisters."

"She never mentioned an aunt either." Lacey said.

"Our grandmothers had a big falling out when our mothers were little." Shelby explained. "Diane might never have told your mom about her family. But we are family."

Lacey studied the woman sitting on her bed for a long moment. She wasn't entirely sure she believed the story, but she would call her mother later and double check. And she wasn't going to let Shelby out of her sight while she was here.

Finally she smiled at her long lost cousin. "Well, welcome to the family."

"Thanks." Shelby said, smiling back.

Lacey picked up the things she had gathered up and went across the hallway to her old bedroom. A few months ago she wouldn't have thought twice about the story she had just been told. She would've accepted it without question. But now she knew that vampires were real, and wasn't sure what other supposedly mythical creatures might wander into her hometown and possibly her home. She wasn't about to take any chances.

**Does anyone have a guess as to why Shelby Westcott has suddenly decided to drop by? One of you already knows, and I thank you for you assistance as always.**


	10. Kill! Kill! Kill!

"**Kill! Kill! Kill!" – The Pierces**

_Dear Diary,_

_ Shelby's been here for a week. When she first showed up I wasn't sure about her, but Mama said that she was telling the truth, and so far she hasn't done or said anything too weird. No sneaking out in the middle of the night or anything._

_ April wasn't happy about me staying in her room and picked a fight over every little thing. I ignored her for the first few days, but it got ridiculous and I had to move back to my room with Shelby. That made it easier to keep an eye on her._

_ Even writing that makes me feel paranoid! She's my family and she hasn't given me any reason not to trust her. People show up randomly in Hazzard all the time. It's always been like that. There was some English guy claiming to be a distant cousin back before I was even born, but that's the only time I can think of that someone's lied about being a relative. And that was the Dukes, not the O'Malleys. Or the Fairchilds, I guess. That was Grandma's maiden name. I assume it was Maggie Westcott's maiden name too._

_ Anyway, Shelby's only twenty-four, so it's kind of like having an older sister. Except that I don't know much about her. She keeps asking me and Mama questions about Grandma and our family like she's trying to figure something out._

_ She's in the shower now, but before she left she asked me if I've ever done something weird that I can't explain. I told her I wasn't sure and she just walked out without explaining when I asked her why. I have done something weird that I can't explain, but I can't say anything about it either. I trust Damon. I shouldn't since I know what he is and what he's capable of, but I do and I can't explain why._

The floor creaked as Shelby came back in, and Lacey put her diary away.

"Don't worry." Shelby said as she sat down on the bed and began drying her hair with her towel. "I won't read your diary. I keep one too, so I get it."

"April doesn't."

"Has she read it before?" Shelby asked.

Lacey started to say yes, and then remembered that she and Damon were the only one that knew about that now. "No. She just doesn't get why I keep it."

"It helps you understand yourself better." Shelby said. "At least, that's why I keep one. Plus I like to go back and read about all the stupid things I've done. Some of the entries are hysterical."

Lacey smiled. "I do that too sometimes."

Shelby dropped the wet towel in the floor and moved to the dresser. Lacey watched as she picked up her brush and began working the tangles out of her hair. It was long, dark, and curly like Lacey's, but she had bright red streaks in it and usually wore it in a ponytail or pigtails to keep it out of her face. Lacey wondered what her parents would think if she came home one day with bright red streaks in her own hair.

"Why were you asking me if I'd ever done anything strange that I can't explain?" Lacey asked. "Like what?"

"Like setting fires or accidentally blowing things up." Shelby said nonchalantly.

Lacey thought about how her dad and Luke hadn't been allowed to shoot, or even carry, guns back when they had been on probation. Instead they had used bows and arrows, and had modified them by attaching sticks of dynamite to the arrows. Uncle Jesse had once told her that her dad had mixed up the live ones with the duds and accidentally blown up the outhouse with all of Luke's old car magazines in it. But for some reason, she didn't think that was the kind of accident Shelby was talking about.

"Have you ever gotten a weird feeling just by touching someone?" Shelby asked.

"Like a psychic?"

"No. Like a witch."

Lacey would've laughed if she didn't already know vampires were real. Why not witches too? "Are you trying to tell me I'm a witch?"

"We're all witches." Shelby said. "Diane didn't want anything to do with magic so she never taught Shannon. My grandmother tried to teach her when she was little, but Diane found out and that's what caused their big falling out. They never spoke to each other again, and I assume you never knew anything about your powers. Your mom probably doesn't remember."

Lacey's eyes narrowed. "Why are you really here?"

Shelby sat back down on the bed, her face completely serious. "I need your help."

"With what?" Lacey asked. "I can't do anything…magical."

"You can. You just don't know how yet." Shelby assured her. "I'm going to teach you, but I need you to help me once you've learned."

"Help you with what?"

"How do you feel about killing?"

Lacey scooted away from her cousin, a horrified look on her face. "Killing what?"

"People." Shelby said. "Innocent people."

"I'm not helping you kill innocent people."

Shelby shook her head. "No. I want you to help me stop it."

"How?"

"By killing the vampires that are causing the deaths of innocent people."

Lacey stared at her. She thought about Damon and how he had killed Grant Marshall simply because he was in a bad mood. He had also killed those two out-of-towners before she had met him the first time. That's what vampires did. He had said so himself. Vampires kill people. But they didn't have to. He could've sucked every last drop of blood out of her body. She had willingly given him two chances, but he had only taken enough to satisfy his hunger.

Shelby took the look on Lacey's face to mean that she didn't believe any of this was true. "Vampires are real, Lacey. They're real and their evil. They don't care who they kill. We have to stop them. It's our duty as witches to rid the earth of vampires."

"Why?"

"Because they're unnatural." Shelby explained. "They never should've been created, but they were, and it's up to us to right that wrong."

Lacey had no idea what to say or do. "They're not all bad, though, are they? Certainly there's some good ones out there, right?"

"No. All vampires are bad. They just make you think they're good." Shelby corrected her. "We have to kill them. All of them. One in particular."

"Which one?" Lacey asked, afraid of what the answer might be.

"An extremely handsome and charming one named Damon Salvatore."

Lacey's heart sank. She couldn't believe that Damon was pure evil as Shelby seemed to think, and she couldn't help her kill him. Even if he had caused the unnecessary deaths of several people. She knew there was good in him. She had seen it. And she knew it wasn't just an act.

"Will you help me?" Shelby asked.

"What did he do?"

"He killed my mother." Shelby explained, her voice reflecting the anger in her eyes. "He found out that she was using him to lead her to other vampires so she could kill them, and he killed her. He ripped her heart right out of her chest. He didn't know I was there, but I saw the whole thing. And he's going to suffer for what he did. Will you help me?"

"I…" Lacey couldn't say yes, but she didn't know how to say no either. What reason could she possibly come up with? She had a crush on a seemingly heartless monster?

Just then April knocked on the door and stuck her head in. "Lacey, you have a visitor downstairs."

Shelby looked as calm and normal as ever. Lacey tried to look calm and normal, but her heart was racing and she was certain her eyes were twice their normal size.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"I'm not telling you." April said teasingly. "Come down and see for yourself."

"I'll be back in a little while." Lacey promised Shelby.

Shelby nodded and watched Lacey walk out of the room.

April ducked back into her own room as Lacey made her way downstairs and froze when she saw Damon standing in the living room. After a moment she rushed over to him, grabbing his arm.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded quietly.

"I was passing through town, and I thought I'd stop to say hello." He replied. "April said your parents are out. Am I not supposed to be here unsupervised?"

Lacey tried to push him out the door, but he didn't budge. "This has nothing to do with my parents."

"Oh, I see. You've decided to take me seriously." He said. "Good for you."

"No. Damon, I don't believe that you're a danger to me." She whispered. "But you are _in_ danger. You have to leave. Now!"

Damon looked down at her, suddenly realizing that she was being completely serious. "Lacey, what's going on?"

"Apparently I'm a witch, and my cousin wants to kill you."

"Emmy?"

"No. Shelby." Lacey clarified. "On my mother's side."

The name was familiar. "Shelby who?"

"Westcott." Lacey said. "She said you killed her mother and now she wants revenge. She wants me to help her."

"Are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Going to help her kill me?"

"No. Of course not!" Lacey insisted.

"Lacey?" Shelby called from upstairs.

"Go. Go, go, go!" Lacey urged, pushing him toward the door once more. Once again, he didn't budge. She looked up at him, her eyes pleading. "Please, Damon. Leave!"

The stairs creaked as Shelby came down, stopping at the last step with her hands on her hips. "How convenient. Lacey, why didn't you tell me that you knew Damon? It would've made things much easier it I hadn't had to explain how terrible he is. But you know, so you understand that he needs to be killed."

Lacey was standing between Damon and Shelby, trying to figure out how to protect Damon from her crazy cousin. All of a sudden he had Shelby pinned against the wall. His hand was around her neck and her feet were at least three inches off the ground.

"Damon!" Lacey shrieked.

"Ah!" he yelled as he suddenly let go of Shelby and fell to the ground, clutching his head.

Lacey rushed to his side, crouching beside him and glaring at her cousin. "Shelby, stop it! You're hurting him!"

"That's the point, cousin." Shelby said. "I want to hurt him. He deserves to have his brain fried after what he did to my mother. Why are you protecting him? She was your family!"

"Shelby, stop!" Lacey pleaded as Damon continued to writhe in pain on the floor.

"I'm not going to stop until every last vampire is dead." Shelby said, moving closer. "Including Damon. I won't spare him just because he's blinded you with his fake charm. You've probably been compelled."

Lacey could feel her anger building up inside her until it simply burst out of her. She had no idea how she did it, but somehow she flung Shelby back against the wall. Whatever she had done stopped whatever Shelby was doing and Damon stopped screaming. April was standing at the top of the stairs, watching the scene unfold with her mouth hanging open. Lacey ignored her sister and kept Shelby pinned against the wall as she got up and walked over to her.

"You don't know what you're doing." Shelby said, struggling for breath even though Lacey wasn't touching her. "You're taking the wrong side. He'll hurt you."

"You're no longer welcome in this house, Shelby." Lacey said. "I suggest you pack your things and leave."

"You'll never be able to control your powers without me."

"I don't care about my powers." Lacey said. "I care about my family and my friends."

"I'm your family."

"We may be related by blood, but you're not my family. Not if you're going to hurt the people I care about."

"He's a vampire! _He'll_ hurt the people you care about!"

"I trust him. I don't trust you." Lacey informed her. "I want you out of this house. Now!"

She flung Shelby hard against the steps and watched as she scrambled upstairs, coughing and gasping for air. April jumped out of the way, obviously terrified, and ran down the stairs.

"Lacey, what's going on?" she demanded.

"I'll explain later." Lacey promised. "You stay down here until she's gone."

April nodded and wandered into the kitchen. Lacey turned to help Damon up. "What did she do to you?"

"I don't know, but it hurt like hell." Damon replied as he got back to his feet. "So, you're a witch."

"Apparently." Lacey said. "Are you okay? Do I need to take you to the hospital or something?"

"No. Vampires heal quickly." He explained. "She can't kill me unless she drives a wooden stake through my heart, rips out my heart, or rips off my head. And apparently, you aren't going to let her do any of those things."

Lacey shook her head. "No."

"Even after what happened in Nashville?"

"I don't know why, but I care about you, Damon." Lacey said honestly. "And I trust you not to hurt me or anyone else I care about."

"I promised I wouldn't."

"I know."

Shelby came back down with her suitcase hastily packed. She glared at Damon for a moment and then turned her focus to Lacey. "This isn't over. I will kill him."

"You can try." Lacey said, having no idea how she was going to stop her.

"I left something for you." Shelby said. "You'll need it if you're going to stick with him. I like a fair fight."

Lacey watched as she walked out of the house and waited until she heard Shelby's car pull out of the driveway and leave. Then she ran upstairs, Damon close behind her, to see what Shelby had left.

"Wait." Damon said, grabbing her arm before she could step into her bedroom. "It could be a trap."

April appeared at her side as she waited in the hallway. Damon went into the room and came back out with an old, worn out looking book.

"She left you her grimoire." He said, handing it over.

Lacey took the heavy book. "Her what?"

"It's a spell book." Damon explained. "She said she wanted a fair fight. Looks like you get to teach yourself how to use your magic."

"What magic?" April asked. "What's going on?"

"Do you want me to…?"

"No." Lacey said, shaking her head. "No more compulsion."

"No more what?" April asked, still utterly confused.

Lacey turned to her sister. "April, we're witches."

April only stared at her.

"And Damon's a vampire." Lacey continued.

"And your crazy, witchy cousin wants to kill me." Damon added.

"Why?" April asked.

"Because I kind of killed her mother and now she wants revenge."

The front door opened and Bo and Shannon stepped into the house.

"Girls, we're home!" Shannon called.

"Is that Damon's car out front?" Bo asked.

"I'll explain everything to you later." Lacey promised April. "Don't mention any of this to Mama and Daddy, okay?"

April nodded. "I don't know what any of this is."

"Good."

April went back to her room and Lacey tossed the book on her bed before she and Damon went downstairs. Halfway down she realized that she had just saved his life, and felt oddly proud of herself even though she had no clue how she had done it, or even exactly _what_ she had done.


	11. Come Together

"**Come Together" – The Beatles, Aerosmith**

"What's wrong?" Lacey called out as she parked the General in front of the old farm house and climbed out of the car.

Damon rose from his spot on the steps and walked over to her as she crossed the yard. "While it was nice of your family to let me stay here while I'm in town, helping you fight your evil witchy cousin, it would be _so_ much better if I could get in."

Lacey gave him a confused look, wondering if the doors were locked. "Did Luke not give you a key?"

"Lack of a key is _not_ the problem." Damon said.

"Then what's the problem?"

"This house is a privately owned residence, owned by a human." Damon explained. "As a vampire, I have to be invited in."

"What?"

"It's a witch thing." He said. "A long, long time ago some witch decided that no vampire would be able to enter a residence unless they were invited in. There's a magical barrier keeping me out, and I need you to invite me in."

"Why me?" Lacey asked. "Couldn't you have asked Luke when he was here earlier?"

Luke and his family had lived at the farm with Uncle Jesse, and had only recently moved to a newer house in town at Carrie's insistence. She was tired of living in a house that was constantly in need of repair, but none of them were willing to give up the farm.

The family, including Rosco, Cletus, and Cooter, had gathered at the farm last night for their first cook-out of the summer, and Lacey and Damon had explained everything to them. They had explained all about vampires, how Shannon's family were witches, and how Lacey had kicked Shelby out after she had tried to kill Damon. At first everyone had looked at them as if they were crazy, but they had demonstrated a few things and now her family members were only slightly freaked out. Damon had decided to stay in town to help Lacey learn how to control her magic and to keep her safe since he was convinced that Shelby would use her against him whether she agreed or not.

Her family hadn't been okay with Damon staying in town. In fact, Luke, who was now the head of the family, had politely asked him to leave. Damon had quickly explained that it was very likely that Shelby would put Lacey in danger in order to put him off guard so she could kill him. He cared about her, so she would be the perfect leverage against him. Bo had insisted that they could keep Lacey safe, and she had jumped in and pointed out that no matter how many bad guys they had outsmarted, they had never gone up against an angry witch, and she would feel safer if Damon stayed.

Once they had finally agreed that it was probably best if Damon stayed in town, they had decided that it wouldn't be right to make him live at the hotel. Since no one was currently living at the farm they had insisted he stay there. But apparently something hadn't been thought out all the way.

"He tried, but apparently your Uncle Jesse left the farm to you when he died." Damon explained. "Since it's in your name, you have to invite me in."

"Am I gonna have to do this every time?" she asked as she walked passed him and stepped inside the house she had spent some of her early years in.

"Once you invite a vampire in, they can't be uninvited."

"So even if we decide we hate you, we can't keep you out?"

"Not unless ownership of the house changes." Damon said as he stopped at the open door, waiting for her to let him inside. "Well?"

"Come in."

Damon entered the house easily, the barrier having been broken down by her invitation. "Thank you."

Lacey smiled at him as another car pulled into the yard. She looked outside and saw it was Enos. "Hey Enos!" she greeted him as he crossed the yard with a small stack of what looked like some kind of files.

Enos joined them in the kitchen and tossed the files on the table, looking a little wary of Damon. "I talked to other sheriffs in the surrounding areas. All of these were ruled as animal attacks."

"Were they really animal attacks?" Lacey asked.

"I don't know." Enos said. "I told them we had calls coming in about a mountain lion and asked if they had had any problems. This is what they sent me."

Damon quickly flipped through the files and groaned. "I was right."

"Vampires?" Lacey asked.

"Yep." Damon confirmed. "Either someone around here knows about vampires and is covering it up, or they really don't have a better explanation than an animal attack."

"And you're sure it wasn't an animal?" Enos asked, still keeping his distance.

"Absolutely." Damon said. "Trust me. I know what a vampire attack looks like, and that's exactly what every single one of these is."

Lacey stared at the files on the table. There had to be at least twenty different folders. "Are they just walking around in the open?"

"Not during the day."

"Well, you have that ring." She pointed out.

"As far as I know there are only a handful of daylight rings in existence, and all but two of those are locked up in a tomb in Mystic Falls." Damon said. "My brother is the only other vampire I know of that could be walking around in broad daylight."

"Could it be him killing all these people?" Enos asked.

"Not a chance." Damon said.

"How do you know?" Lacey pulled out a chair and sat down, something she hadn't been able to do at the cook out after their demonstration to prove that Damon could indeed compel people. "You said you hadn't seen him in a long time."

"Stefan doesn't feed on human blood." Damon explained. "He has a bit of a problem with it, so he hunts deer and rabbits and things."

"What kind of problem?" Lacey asked.

"The kind where he gets so caught up in the feed that he looses control and rips his victim's head off." Damon sat down across from Lacey, at the head of the table where her uncle had probably sat. "That's why we call him The Ripper. After he rips their heads off, he feels bad and…puts them back together."

"So you're the good one?" Enos asked, still not willing to sit down and really join the conversation. He still wasn't sure if they could trust Damon.

"Compared to Ripper Stefan? Yes." Damon replied. "Generally? No. My brother is a much better man than I am, but I'm the one you've got, and I can promise you Stefan won't be showing up here while I'm in town."

Lacey finally grew annoyed with Enos standing nervously in the corner and twisted around to look up at him. "Would you please sit down? He's not going to hurt you."

Enos let out on of his nervous little chuckles and finally sat down, still regarding Damon with wary eyes. "Why did you want me to look into this?"

"Because it proves that there are other vampires in the area." Damon said.

"You think that's why Shelby showed up out of the blue?" Lacey asked.

Damon nodded. "Yeah. She's a vampire hunter. She's gonna go where the vampires are."

"And you don't think there was any truth to her story about wanting to reconnect with the family?"

"I can almost guarantee that she only came to town to recruit more witches for her cause." Damon said. "Finding me here only made it better for her."

"And you really think she'll use Lacey to lure you into a trap?" Enos asked.

"Shelby Westcott isn't the first vindictive witch I've dealt with." Damon replied. "She hates me more than anything, and she'll do whatever she has to to kill me. And she knows that I don't want anything bad to happen to Lacey, so she'll use her in any way she can. Which is why I'm not going anywhere, and you," he pointed at Lacey. "Need to learn how to use that magic. You'll be able to fight her better if you know what you're doing."

Lacey nodded. "I know. What about the rest of the town?"

"Is Daisy serving vervain at the Boar's Nest like I suggested?" Damon asked.

Enos nodded. "She's putting it in every drink she serves. Will that protect against witches too?"

"Just vampires, but it's better than nothing."

"Okay." Enos said, rising from his seat. "I'll go see if I can track Shelby down so at least we'll know where she is."

Lacey waited until Enos was gone before she filled Damon in on the decision she had made on her way over. "I decided not to drink the vervain."

"What?" Damon demanded. "Why not?"

She held up her arm, indicating the bracelet she never took off. "You said as long as I have it on me I'm okay."

"Yeah, but that can come off."

"That's a chance I'm willing to take." She said. "You have to feed, and I'd rather you do it from me than my neighbors. I trust you to control yourself with me."

Damon sighed. "Okay. Just make sure that bracelet never comes off. Especially now that we know I'm not the only vampire roaming around the area."

She nodded. "Promise."

"Speaking of feeding…"

Lacey smiled and rolled her eyes as she got up and walked around the table. She pulled her hair over one shoulder and held out her wrist. "Neck or wrist?"

Last night her family had been confused about the feeding process so they had demonstrated that too. Lacey had automatically offered her neck, but Damon had suggested that her wrist would be less awkward with her entire family watching. She had blushed at that, realizing that he was right. Having someone drink blood straight from your vein was a fairly intimate experience. She hadn't thought about it until he had said something, but it would have been a little embarrassing to have him latch onto her neck in front of her father. He had fed from her wrist and then given her his blood to show them how it would heal the wound.

Now she wasn't sure which part of her she should let him drink from, so she decided to give him a choice. She halfway expected him to take her wrist after last night, but he went for her neck instead. It didn't really surprise her though. Damon didn't strike her as the kind of person that went out of his way to make other people comfortable very often. She suspected that last night had been a one time thing since she didn't plan on ever letting him feed off her in front of her family, or anyone else, ever again. Having him drink from her wrist in front of other people had been a little embarrassing too.


	12. Save Me

"**Save Me" – Tyler Blackburn**

Lacey had spent the rest of the day helping Damon get settled in at the farm and planting a patch of vervain in the garden. It was dark now and she had just flipped through Shelby's grimoire, wondering how in the world she was going to learn all of the spells in it. She closed it with a sigh and flopped back against the couch cushions.

"I'm never going to figure this out." She announced as Damon came in from the kitchen with two glasses of the sweet tea she had made earlier.

He handed her a glass and sat down beside her. "You don't really have a choice."

"Sure I do." She said. "No one's making me learn how to be a witch."

"You're not learning _how_ to be a witch. You _are_ a witch." Damon reminded her. "You're just learning how to use your powers."

"Well, no one's making me do it." she repeated. "I could just ignore it."

Damon took a long sip of tea. "You could, but then Shelby would have a much better advantage."

Lacey realized that he was right and sighed once more. She propped her bare feet up on the coffee table, something she wasn't allowed to do at home, and took a sip from her own glass. "I can't come over here to feed you every day."

"I could go raid a blood bank, but I don't think you'd like that very much either."

"No."

"Why can't you come out here every day?" Damon asked.

Lacey turned her head to look at him. "Hazzard's grown some since the first time you were here, but it's still a small town. The neighbors would talk."

Damon started to laugh, but realized that she was serious. "They'll talk anyway. I'm the mysterious new guy in town. Don't you think everyone's already curious about me, and why your family has basically taken me in?"

"Maybe about you, but not about my family being nice to you." She corrected. "That's what Dukes do. We help people."

"And vampires."

She smiled and took another sip of tea. "So, you can drink stored blood? It doesn't have to be…fresh?"

"As long as it's blood, I'm good." Damon confirmed. "Why?"

"Mason jars."

"What?" Damon asked as Lacey set her glass on the table and got up.

She walked into the kitchen and Damon realized she was headed outside. He got up to stop her, certain it wasn't safe for her to wander around at night with other vampires possibly lurking around looking for someone to eat, but the phone rang. Knowing it was probably one of her parents calling to check on her, he decided that Lacey was probably okay. The vampire attacks hadn't occurred in Hazzard. He picked up the phone and watched through the window as Lacey headed toward the barn.

"Hello?"

"Damon. It's Bo."

"Lacey's fine." Damon assured him. "She's not being very smart at the moment, but she's fine."

"What do you mean?" Bo asked.

"She said something about mason jars and ran outside."

"There's a bunch of old mason jars out in the barn." Bo explained. "Why does she need them?"

Damon pushed the curtain back as Lacey disappeared into the barn. "She didn't say, but I think she's planning on filling them with blood so I can feed myself."

"I'd be more comfortable with that."

"Me too." Damon admitted. He had assured everyone multiple times that he wouldn't hurt Lacey, and that was the last thing he wanted to do, but he didn't quite trust himself.

Lacey was halfway to the barn when she remembered that there was at least one other vampire loose in the area, but she kept going. She knew exactly where the box she wanted was, and it wouldn't take long to grab it and run back inside. Besides, she was already halfway there.

She heard a quiet rustling as she stepped into the barn and told herself it was just rats or owls. There was nothing in this barn that was going to hurt her. And if there was, all she had to do was scream and Damon would come help her. In fact, he'd probably be there before she _could_ scream.

She took a few more steps and heard another, more human noise. She froze at the sound of someone clearing their throat behind her. _Please be Damon_, she thought as she turned around. But it wasn't Damon. It was definitely a person, but it was too dark for her to tell if it was someone she knew or not.

"Can I help you?" she asked, trying not to sound as scared as she suddenly felt. Her heart was racing.

"You got anything to eat around here?" the man asked.

Lacey took a step back. She didn't recognize the voice. "Um. I'm sure I could find something in the house."

"Good. I'm starving." He said. "I've been starving all day."

"Have you eaten?" she asked as he came closer.

"Yes ma'am, but it doesn't help any."

Lacey tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "You're craving blood, aren't you?"

"I don't know why I would be, but it does sound good." He continued to move closer as she took another step back. "Why in the world would I want to drink blood?"

"Because you're a vampire." Lacey informed him. "A new one apparently. I can help you, but you'll have to let me go inside. I can get you a glass of blood, and you'll be fine."

The man laughed and pounced on her. "Sorry miss. I don't think I can wait."

Lacey screamed as the stranger bit into her neck. She knew he wasn't going to stop until she was dead. If she was right and he was a new vampire, he probably didn't know how to control himself like Damon did.

"Damon!" she screamed as she struggled to get away.

Suddenly she fell to the ground as Damon grabbed the man and threw him across the barn, his teeth ripping her neck open in the process. She clamped her hand over the wound afraid she was going to bleed to death.

Damon turned back to help her, but the stranger lunged for him.

"Look out!" she yelled.

She watched as Damon flung the guy off of him, sending him flying across the yard and crashing onto the picnic table. The table busted apart as he hit it and one of the pieces speared him, but missed his heart. He screamed in agony as Damon walked over to him, and Lacey was stunned to see him stick his hand into the man's chest and rip his heart out, tossing it across the yard like it was a wet rag he no longer needed.

In a flash Damon had scooped her up and carried her back inside, practically dumping her on the couch. She was still stunned from what she had just witnessed, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open, as Damon bit into his wrist and pressed it to her lips. She drank, knowing that she would probably bleed to death if she didn't, and felt the gaping wound on the side of her neck heal.

"What were you thinking?" Damon demanded, his blue yes blazing.

Lacey opened her mouth and uttered the first words that came to mind. "You broke the picnic table."

Damon stared at her for a moment, baffled. "I saved your life!"

"My great-grandfather built that table." She said.

"I'll buy you a new picnic table." Damon promised, still confused at her concern over the table. "He was going to _kill_ you!"

Lacey jerked back as if he had slapped her and stared at him for a long moment. Suddenly she realized how stupid she sounded making a fuss about a broken picnic table. The table was technically a family heirloom, having sat in the front yard for decades, but Damon was right. Her life was more important than a picnic table. Her family would get over the loss of the table. It would take a lot longer to get over her death.

"Thank you." She said quietly.

"You're not allowed outside after dark anymore." Damon said firmly, sounding like a father grounding a troublesome teen. "It's not safe."

Lacey nodded. "I guess I'm staying here tonight, then?"

"I don't think your parents will mind after I tell them you almost got yourself killed hunting for mason jars."

"He was new."

"What?"

"I think he was transitioning." Lacey clarified. "He said he'd been starving all day and food wasn't helping. When I suggested he was craving blood he seemed surprised and asked why he would want to drink blood. He had no idea what was happening to him."

"Great." Damon said as he sat down beside her. "Someone's out there turning more vampires."

They sat in silence for a while, each of them digesting the news and what had just happened.

Finally Damon looked at her and brushed her hair back from her face. "Are you okay?"

Lacey nodded, but couldn't stop the tears. She began shaking her head as tears slid down her cheeks. "No."

Damon sighed and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close and resting his chin on top of her head. "You're safe now."

She did feel safe, but she clung to him anyway. She knew he couldn't protect her twenty-four seven, and she was scared now that she knew there were other vampires out there, along with her vampire hating cousin. She longed to be mixed up in one of Boss Hogg's looney schemes instead. At least those had never really hurt anyone. Now she wasn't so sure someone she cared about wouldn't end up dead.


	13. The Devil Within

"**The Devil Within" – Digital Daggers**

"So how was it?" April asked as soon as Lacey came through the front door.

"How was what?" Lacey returned, her voice groggy. She had ended up sleeping with Damon because she was too afraid to sleep in Daisy's old bedroom by herself, but she hadn't slept well. She had tossed and turned most of the night and woken up several times because of nightmares. Damon would've been able to help with that, but she refused to take off her vervain bracelet.

"Spending the night with your boyfriend." April teased.

Lacey sighed and shut the door behind her, heading for the stairs. "Not now, April."

"Lacey?" Shannon called as she emerged from the kitchen. Her face was awash with relief when she saw her older daughter home safely, and she ran across the room to hug her. "Thank God you're okay! Bo! She's home!"

Lacey endured hugs from her father and brother, who wasn't really aware of what was going on since he was only ten, and managed not to snap at her mother for petting on her. She hated being petted, but she understood that her parents were worried about her,

"What happened?" Bo asked. "Damon said something about you being in trouble and hung up. I never heard back from either of you."

"I'm sorry." Lacey apologized, covering her mouth as she yawned. "I should've called. I was just so upset it completely slipped my mind."

Shannon ushered her to the couch and sat down beside her, unable to keep from touching her every few seconds as if making sure she really was there. "It's okay, sweetheart. Just tell us what happened."

"Are you sure you want to know?" Lacey asked.

Both of her parents nodded.

She was quiet for a while, trying to figure out exactly what she wanted to tell them. She wasn't about to tell them that there was someone turning new vampires in town. They should probably know, but she wasn't even sure it was true. For all she knew the guy had been turned in Alabama and had driven to Hazzard. And there was no way he had turned anyone since he hadn't even completed the transition until he sank his teeth into her neck. He had only technically been a vampire for a few moments before Damon ripped his heart out.

"I guess the other vampire found his way to the farm, and I wasn't thinking when I went out to the barn." Lacey finally said. "He attacked me and Damon killed him."

"So there aren't any more?" Bo asked.

Lacey shrugged. "There could be. All we know is that Damon didn't kill those people."

"How can we be so sure?"

Lacey looked at her father, amazed at the words she was about to speak. "He wouldn't be so sloppy. He's been a vampire long enough to know how to…clean up after himself. Whoever this was just left them there for anyone to find."

Bo looked a little surprised at her answer too. None of them had ever expected to be discussing vampires so seriously.

"Did he bite you?" Wade asked, his young face clearly showing his interest as if he were watching a movie.

"Did who bite me?" Lacey asked, suspecting that her brother didn't fully understand the gravity of the situation. His ten year old mind didn't quite understand the fact the she had almost died last night, and that she had watched her new vampire friend kill someone right in front of her.

"That other vampire." Wade clarified.

Lacey nodded. "Yes. He bit me."

"You don't have any marks on your neck."

"Do you remember the other day when Damon and I explained everything at the cook-out?" Lacey asked.

"Yeah, but I wasn't really paying attention."

"Of course you weren't." April said. "It's not like this is important or anything."

"April." Shannon cautioned.

Lacey ignored her sister's rudeness and focused on her brother. "Do you remember when Damon bit me?"

Wade nodded. "Yeah, but he bit your wrist. Did the other one bit your wrist too?"

"No. He bit my neck."

"So where's the mark?" Wade asked, clearly confused.

"She drank Damon's blood, stupid." April said.

"I'm not stupid!" Wade yelled.

"April, don't call your brother stupid." Bo warned.

"Sorry." April said with a huff.

Wade glared at April for a moment and finally turned back to Lacey. "You drank his blood? Why?"

"Because vampire blood heals." Lacey explained.

"Oh." Wade said. He jumped up from his seat in the floor and gave her another hug. "Well, I'm glad you're okay."

Lacey couldn't help but laugh as he announced that he was going to play baseball with some of his friends and bounded out of the house.

"Is it okay for him to be playing outside right now?" Shannon asked. "With vampires on the loose?"

"He'll be fine as long as he's in before dark." Lacey replied. "Right now the sun is up and there's not a cloud in the sky. The only vampire he might run into would be Damon."

"Our friendly neighborhood killer." Bo joked.

"Daddy!" Lacey fussed, swatting at him playfully.

"And Lacey's new boyfriend." April teased again.

"He's not my boyfriend." Lacey insisted truthfully.

April got up and stuck her tongue out. "Bet you wish he was."

Instead of arguing with her sister Lacey continued to be a mature young woman and ignored her sister's taunts. She hugged her parents once more and headed for the stairs.

April followed. "You want to kiss him, don't you?"

"Hush, April." Lacey said, trying to ignore the annoyance that was building up inside her.

"Lacey and Damon sitting in a tree," April sang. "K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"April." Lacey warned through clenched teeth.

"First comes love, then come marriage, then comes Lacey with a baby carriage!" April continued.

"April, stop." Lacey begged. She could feel the annoyance turning into anger, and she was very aware of the fact that she was about to loose control. "Damon and I are just friends."

"Oh please." April said once they had reached the top of the stairs. "It's so obvious you have a huge crush on him."

Lacey could feel every once of her maturity slipping away, just like it always did when April wanted to pick a fight. Only this time it was different. This time she felt like she had when she had pinned Shelby against the wall the other day and tried to strangle her with her mind.

"I mean it, April." Lacey begged. "Please. I don't want to hurt you."

"_I mean it, April._" April mimicked in a nasal voice. "_I don't want to hurt you._ You're not gonna hurt me. I'm your sister. You love me. Just like you _love_ Damon."

Lacey tried to calm down, but it was no use. "April, stop!"

"Lacey loves Damon! Lacey loves Damon!"

"I do not!" Lacey yelled, and felt something inside her snap.

Suddenly April screamed as Lacey threw her back against the hallway wall without touching her. Lacey wasn't aware of the fact that she was hurting her sister, mentally wrapping her hands around April's neck and squeezing, just like she had done with Shelby. April gasped for breath as she tried to pull the hands that weren't there away from her neck, but Lacey was too strong.

Suddenly Lacey snapped out of her trance as Bo grabbed her and shook her. She realized what she had done when she saw her sister lying on the floor, their mother rushing to her side to make sure she was okay. Lacey lunged toward April, afraid she had killed her, but Bo grabbed her.

"Lacey, no."

"I'm not gonna hurt her." Lacey promised as her eyes filled with tears. She clung to her father and sobbed as she accepted the fact that she had already hurt her sister. "I don't want to hurt her. Oh my god. Did I…is? Is she okay?"

Shannon nodded as April tried to sit up. "She'll be fine."

"April." Lacey sobbed, reaching for her sister.

April stared at her in fear.

"April, I'm so sorry." Lacey apologized as the tears poured down her face. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Get…her…away from me." April demanded, still trying to catch her breath. "I don't want her near me. She tried to kill me!"

"No." Lacey insisted. "No. I didn't. April, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"I don't care!" April shouted back. "Stay away from me you…you monster!"

April's words stung, but Lacey realized that they were true. Whether she had meant to or not, she had tried to kill her sister. She let Bo drag her into her room and collapsed on the bed.

Bo shut the door and sat down beside her. "Are you okay?"

"No!" she shouted at him, jerking away from his hand when he tried to touch her. "I'm not okay, Daddy. I just tried to kill my little sister! How could I be okay?"

"It was an accident." Bo said.

Lacey stared at him. "How can you defend me right now? I just hurt you daughter!"

"You're my daughter too." Bo said, pulling her close to him and holding on even though she struggled to get away. "That's how I can defend you. You are my child, and I will do anything to keep you safe. It was an accident. I know you didn't mean to hurt your sister. You just don't know how to control your magic yet."

Lacey burst into tears once more. "This is all Shelby's fault. If she hadn't told me I'm a witch…"

"We wouldn't have any idea what's going on." Bo said, finishing her sentence. "If it's anyone's fault, it's your grandmother's for not teaching your mother how to use her own magic. If she had, your mom would've taught you, and you would know how to control it."

Shannon knocked on the door and let herself in. "Bo? I think we need to talk about some things."

"Is April okay?" Lacey asked through her tears.

Shannon nodded, but didn't look like she was going to show any sympathy to her older daughter at the moment. "She'll be fine, but I think you need to stay in your room for a while until you both calm down. I don't want to risk that happening again."

"She started it." Lacey said weakly, realizing two things as she spoke. One was how childish she sounded, and the other was that her mother blamed her for what she had done.

"I don't care who started it." Shannon said, sounding very much like a protective mother. The only problem was that she was only protecting one of her daughters. "It doesn't matter who started it. What matters is that it happened, and your father and I need to figure out a way to keep it from happening again."

Suddenly Lacey felt defensive. She pulled away from her father and stared at her mother. "You and Daddy need to decide? Don't I have a say in it?"

"Not right now."

"I'm eighteen!"

"I don't care what the law says." Shannon said firmly. "As far as I'm concerned you're still a child, and you have no control over your magic. I want all of my children safe, and you have no say in how I achieve that at the moment."

Lacey felt like she was being unfairly judged for something that wasn't her fault as she watched her mother walk out of the room. She looked at her father, hoping to find him still on her side. "Daddy?"

"Everything's going to be okay." Bo assured her as he got up and followed Shannon downstairs.

He shut the door, and Lacey simply stared at it. They might as well just take her down to the jail and let Enos lock her in one of the holding cells.

She grabbed a tissue from her nightstand and began drying her face as she thought about her parents downstairs, discussing her fate. She knew no matter how much they loved her, whatever they decided wasn't going to come out in her favor.


	14. Leaving Home

"**Leaving Home" – Katie Armiger**

"I am so sorry about what happened." Lacey said as she hugged her younger sister.

April shrugged and gave her a half-hearted hug. "Whatever. I know you didn't mean to hurt me."

She scoffed when Lacey teared up. "Oh please. It's not like you're moving across the country."

Lacey wiped away a tear as she walked over and hugged her mother.

"You understand why we made this decision, right?" Shannon asked.

Lacey nodded. "Yeah. I still feel a little like I'm being exiled, but I get it."

"We just want to keep all of you safe." Shannon said, brushing a loose curl back from Lacey's face.

"I know." Lacey assured her. She reached back and tightened her ponytail before hugging her mother once more.

"Ready?" Bo asked, as he slammed the General's trunk, locking her suitcases inside.

Lacey nodded and smiled as she watched her father walk over and kiss her mother good-bye even though he would only be gone for a few hours at most. Then she laughed as he took a running start, jumped, and slid across the hood of the car. He hadn't done it in a while, but Lacey remembered seeing him and Luke both do it when she was little. Her mother chastised him and Lacey rolled her eyes as she climbed into the passenger seat, buckling a seatbelt that hadn't come with the car.

She fought back tears as they pulled out of the driveway and headed toward the farm. After she had almost killed her sister her parents had decided that she should move in with Damon to better ensure everyone's safety. At least until she learned how to control her magic. She understood their reasoning, but she didn't like the fact that she was basically being kicked out of her own home. She also didn't like that she was the only one having problems with her magic. As of yet her mother and sister hadn't even shown any signs of having any at all, even though she knew they did. Wade probably did too, but she was the only one interested in using it. Maybe that's why she was having trouble.

"Does this mean that you trust Damon?" she had asked last night after her parents had explained to her that she was moving.

"Not exactly." Bo had replied. "But he's proven that he's capable of keeping you safe, and it'll be harder for you to hurt or kill him if you lose control again."

The look on his face as he had spoken told her that he was amazed at what he was saying. Even with all the crazy things he had seen happen in Hazzard, he never thought he would be sending his witch daughter to live with her new vampire friend so she wouldn't accidentally kill anyone.

"You know this is all ridiculous, right?" she asked now.

"What?"

"This whole vampire/witch thing." She clarified. "Even if I did tell someone, they'd never believe me. Future generations of Dukes will read my diaries and think I was a loon."

"You're not a loon." Bo said.

"Well, we know that."

"Are you going to be okay living at the farm?" Bo asked.

Lacey nodded. "Yeah. It's not like I've never lived there."

"I mean with Damon." Bo said. "I'm not crazy about it, but I can't think of any other options."

Lacey turned her head and looked at her father, who hadn't been a part of the first two years of her life, but had become the person she most wanted to be like. "Daddy, I'll be fine. Damon and I get along just fine."

Bo let out a sigh and glanced at her. "I'm gonna miss you. You know that right?"

"It's not like I'm moving across the country." She quoted her sister. "I'll miss you too."


	15. Oh, Atlanta

"**Oh, Atlanta" – Alison Krauss**

"I know how to get to Atlanta, Lacey." Damon said, his voice full of annoyance. "I've been there before. I watched it _burn_."

Lacey let out a sigh, showing her own annoyance, but when she spoke her voice was pure determination. Or stubbornness. "That's nice, but have you been there recently? Have you ever even been to the Varsity?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "Of course I have. I was there for the opening of the original in 1928."

"I'm driving." She insisted.

"Who taught you how to drive?" he asked.

"Daddy." She said as if it was obvious, and it should've been. "Why?"

Damon snatched the keys out of her hand and tossed them out the kitchen window. "I've ridden with your father. We're taking my car. I'm driving."

"This is a Duke family tradition." She argued. "You were invited out of courtesy. The General is going, and you're not driving my car."

Damon narrowed his eyes and attempted to stare her down, but she was more determined than he had originally thought, and he finally realized how stupid this fight was. With an annoyed sigh, he gave in. "Fine."

Lacey smiled triumphantly and held the screen door open. "Now…go find my keys."

Damon stuck his tongue out at her as he exited the house to retrieve her keys, and she laughed at the decidedly childish gesture. She walked out of the house and held out her hand. Damon dropped the keys in her open palm and slung an arm around her shoulders.

"You Dukes really need to weed some of that stubbornness out of the bloodline." He said as they walked toward the car.

Lacey let out a single laugh. "Yeah right."

He thought about kissing her just because he could, but she pulled away from him. Instead he watched, amused, as she ran and vaulted herself across the hood of the orange car. He recalled having seen either Bo or Luke do the same thing on his first visit to Hazzard, and it only made it that much clearer that she was her father's daughter. No matter how much she looked like her mother.

"Tommy don't run!" A woman called out across the parking lot. "Watch for cars, honey!"

Lacey looked over and smiled at the little family on their way into the restaurant. A mother, father, and two children. The boy she assumed was Tommy was about nine or ten, Wade's age, and the other boy was probably around fifteen. After a moment she realized that Damon was staring at the younger boy. The look on his face was one of disbelief. She reached over and touched his arm as her parents' car pulled in beside them.

"Damon?" she said. "What is it?"

Damon shook his head. "That boy looks exactly like Stefan did when he was little."

Lacey looked back at the family and smiled. "You miss him, don't you?"

"Stefan?" He asked, and the next word came out on a snort. "No."

Lacey didn't believe it, but she let it go and climbed out of the car, following her own family into the restaurant. Usually they included Rosco, Cletus, and Cooter on their family get togethers, but today Damon was the only one there that wasn't a Duke by blood or by marriage. And he was only there because she had asked if he could come, and her parents still felt a little guilty about making her leave even though it had been three weeks.

"How's the magic coming?" Emmy asked as she sat down at a table for four, taking the seat across from Lacey.

Lacey slid into the booth beside Damon. "Just fine."

Luke sat across from Damon and flashed Lacey a teasing smile. "She hasn't caught the barn on fire or anything yet has she?"

"Not the barn." Damon said, glancing at Lacey.

She ducked her head. "I said I'm sorry so many times! When are you gonna let it go?"

"Probably never." He admitted. "Vampires and fire don't mix very well."

"Get over it." Lacey rolled her eyes and realized that she had left her purse in the car. "I'll be right back."

She grew wary when she saw the woman hovering around the General. She was young and pretty with long, dark brown hair, and nicely tanned skin. Her hair was curly and she was dressed in a black tank top with fringe dripping down the front and a pair of tight jeans. Her black boots looked brand new and a pair of large silver hoops peeked out from behind her curls. As she drew closer, Lacey could see that the woman had chocolaty brown eyes, similar to her own, but they didn't look particularly friendly and there wasn't a hint of a smile on her face.

"Can I help you?" Lacey asked cautiously as she approached.

"Are you Elizabeth Duke?"

Her voice was sort of husky sounding and wasn't any warmer than her expression, which now looked somewhat amused and the tiniest bit curious.

Lacey stopped a few feet away, out of the woman's reach. Whoever she was, Lacey was getting a very good vibe from her. "Yes. Who are you?"

The woman's smile was more calculating than anything else. "I'm Katherine. I'm sure you've heard of me."

"Katherine _Pierce_?" Lacey asked, stunned.

"The one and only." Katherine said, holding up her hands in a sort of here-I-am gesture, showing herself off. "I look pretty good for someone that's been sealed in a tomb for over a hundred years, don't I?"

Lacey opened her mouth, sputtered, and let out her breath in a gush of air.

"You're speechless." Katherine said. "How cute."

"Wh-what are you doing here?" Lacey asked, not bothering to ask how she got out of the tomb.

"I need you to do something for me." Katherine replied. "No doubt you're on vervain, hanging around with a vampire, so I can't compel you. I have other ways of getting what I want, though, so I suggest you listen carefully and do exactly what I say."

"What do you want?" Lacey demanded, not ready to agree to anything until she heard what was being asked of her.

Katherine twisted around and ran her hand over the General, leaning against him and turning back to Lacey. "What does everyone call you? Not Elizabeth, I assume."

"Lacey."

Katherine smiled, still no warmth to be found. "Lacey. Pretty. Pretty name, pretty girl. I can see why Damon likes you so much. And I'm sure you like him just as much, maybe more since he's still hung up on me. Am I right?"

Lacey stared at her, focusing.

"Don't bother. I know you're a witch." Katherine said, her hand snaking out and encircling Lacey's wrist. She squeezed hard.

Lacey cried out in pain. "Let go!"

Katherine eased up a little, but kept Lacey's wrist firmly in her grasp, pulling her close and lowering her voice so that it resembled a rather feline growl. "Hurt me, I'll hurt you. Worse."

When Katherine released her she stepped back and glared at her. "What do you want? I'm sure you didn't come all this way to tease me and give me a few bruises."

"Of course not. That would be a complete waste of perfectly good time."

"What do you want?" Lacey demanded once more.

"Damon's obviously told you all about the tomb." Katherine said. "Has he told you how he plans on opening it?"

"Yes." Lacey confirmed. "And now that I've met you, I can't see any reason why he would want to."

"Well, he does, and I don't want him to." Katherine said. "I need you to help me out and convince him to give up, let me go."

"I can't do that."

"Sure you can. Like I said, you like him, he likes you." Katherine moved closer. "I'm sure you can figure out something. After all, you're a woman and he's…Damon. Surely you can find a way to…convince him to stay here and move on."

Lacey didn't like the way Katherine's eyes raked over her as if she were a hungry wolf about to gobble her up. She wanted to retreat a few more steps, but she stood her ground. "I don't know why, but for some reason he's in love with you. As much as I'd like to, I don't think I can _fix _that."

"I suggest you at least try." Katherine said, her words anything but a suggestion. "Or I promise you'll regret it."

Lacey moved around Katherine and grabbed her purse out of the car. Ignoring the other woman she turned and headed back inside.

"One more thing." Katherine called out.

Lacey paused and waited for her to speak.

"Don't mention our little meeting." Katherine said. "I don't want word getting around that I'm not in that tomb."

Lacey didn't say anything. She simply continued back toward the restaurant and her family.

"Enjoy your lunch!" Katherine called out.

"Took you long enough." Emmy said as Lacey slid back into the booth, feeling slightly unnerved.

"Someone needed directions." Lacey lied, finally letting herself wonder why and how Katherine was no longer in the tomb in Mystic Falls.


	16. 4th of July

_Dear Diary,_

_ I haven't told Damon about Katherine yet. Not because I'm afraid of what she might do, but because I'm afraid of what _he_ might do. Knowing what happened in Nashville, I can't even try to convince myself he wouldn't at least self-destruct. I may not have known him all that long, but I know him well enough to know that he's not exactly even tempered. And he's been set and determined to free Katherine from the tomb for over a hundred years. I really don't think he'd have a very good reaction to finding out that not only has she not been in that tomb this whole time, but that she knows where he is and doesn't seem to care._

"Why dedicate a park to this guy?" Damon asked as he pulled into the parking lot of the Jefferson Davis Hogg Memorial Park for the annual Hazzard County 4th of July Picnic. "I never actually met him, but from what I've heard he didn't deserve a park."

"Boss was the greediest person I've ever known, but he was a good man, and he never did anything that would hurt anyone." Lacey said as she pushed thoughts of Katherine Pierce out of her head.

"How many times did he try to take your family's farm away?" Damon reminded her. "Last time I checked, farmers are pretty dependant on their farms for their livelihood."

Lacey admitted that he was right as she pushed open the door of his Camaro and climbed out. "Well, yeah, and we certainly weren't the only family he terrorized in that way, but that was as far as he would go. If there was even a hint that anyone might actually get physically hurt, he pulled the plug…or tried to…on whatever scheme he was pulling. There were several times when something blew up in his face and he ended up teaming up with my cousins to right things.

"He may not have been the best example of a good guy, but he wasn't…well…you."

"Ouch." Damon said as he pulled a stack of several trays of Lacey's peanut butter chocolate chip cookies out of the back seat. "That was harsh."

Lacey took a chocolate cake out and used her hip to bump the door shut. "Not so much. Besides, no matter what Boss did, he was still a loved man around here."

Damon shrugged. "Whatever."

She smiled as they made their way toward the bake sale booth. A group of gossipy housewives began whispering as they passed.

"What are they saying?" Lacey asked quietly.

Damon tuned into their conversation and listened for a moment.

"What?" she demanded good-naturedly when he grinned.

"They think you're knocked up." He informed her. "Apparently it's the only possible reason you would be living with me."

"That's impossible!" she exclaimed, a little embarrassed. "We haven't…"

"They don't know that." He pointed out. "And it would be impossible even if we had."

"Well," she said after a moment. "That's good to know."

"What? That I can't get you pregnant, or that they think I did?"

She paused again, once again a little embarrassed. "Both, I guess."

"I'll keep that in mind." Damon said flashing that mischievous, and somewhat dangerous, smile.

She realized, as she set the cake on the big table set up to help raise money for the orphanage, that had been renamed the Hazzard Country Children's Home, but was still referred to as the orphanage, that Katherine's plan wasn't going to work. If either of the two of them was going to be seduced, it would be her. All she knew how to do was flirt with a well-meaning country boy. That certainly didn't describe Damon Salvatore, who had at least one hundred and forty years, and at least that much experience, on her. Maybe she could play along while he was in town, but wouldn't she just end up with a broken heart when he went back to Mystic Falls? Maybe she should tell him about Katherine.

The image of Grant Marshall's broken body lying in the alley behind Tootsie's flashed through her mind, and once against she decided that wasn't the safest idea.

"Thanks for helping out, Lacey." Mrs. Shelton, who was in charge of the bake sale and a proud member of the Hazzard gossip mill, beamed a smile at Lacey and an overtly curious look at Damon. "I don't think we've met yet. I'm Linda Shelton. It's Darien, right?"

"Damon, actually." He said, smiling as he shook her hand. "Salvatore. Nice to meet you."

Mrs. Shelton smiled again. "Well, I'm sure you've heard it already, but welcome to Hazzard."

They chatted with Mrs. Shelton, who was obviously digging for any tidbit of information she could pass along, for a few minutes and then excused themselves.

Damon slung his arm around her shoulders as they walked away. "Why don't we give them something real to talk about?"

"What? Are you gonna kiss me?" she teased and laughed.

"Why not?" He asked. "You kissed me."

"I…" She had hoped he had forgotten about that. Her breath whooshed out in a defeated sigh. "Yeah. I did. Deal with it."

Damon smiled, but didn't kiss her. Even though they had become friends, part of her still had a sizable crush on him, and that part of her was a little disappointed when he didn't kiss her.

They made their way over to the long line of tables laden with food and waited patiently in line, slowly filling their plates as they went. Lacey was stopped several times by friends and neighbors on the way back to where her family was sitting, and she didn't fail to notice that every single one of them stared at Damon like he was the most fascinating thing in the world. He didn't fail to notice it either.

"All those women wish they could be you." He said as they approached her family's blanket.

Lacey rolled her eyes. "Do you have to be so cocky?"

"Would you have me any other way?"

She wanted to say yes, but realized she would be lying. Vampire, murderer, seducer of women everywhere, dangerous, short tempered, in love with another woman. She made the list in her head, and although she knew that any one of them should be a red flag that had warning bells going off in her head, there was something about him. She liked him just they was he was.

He smirked when she didn't answer, but didn't say anything.

The rest of the day was normal. Friends and neighbors laughing and catching up, children playing, music, dancing, food, no supernatural drama. Just people celebrating. Lacey was a little nervous as the sun went down, but told herself there was nothing to worry about. The drinks and some of the food had been spiked with vervain, and almost every member of her family knew how to properly stake a vampire. In fact, April had almost killed Damon twice already. Lacey wasn't entirely certain they had been accidents. If something did happen, they could probably handle it.

Damon had kindly offered to dispose of the trash, and had been gone for a while. Lacey figured one of her neighbors had cornered him and went to go find him. Depending on who it was he could need rescuing.

It was dark and the fireworks were about to start, so she walked quickly, screaming when a hand shot out from behind a tree and grabbed her arm. Shelby, another vampire, Katherine. All of these possibilities went through her head, and she acted on impulse, intending to give whoever had grabbed her a massive headache. By the time she realized it was Damon he was already on the ground.

She crouched beside him. "Oh my god! Damon! I'm so sorry. I thought…"

"I got it." he said. "I'm sorry."

"Are you okay?" She asked as he sat up and leaned against the tree.

"Yeah. Don't do that again."

"I'm sorry." She repeated as she started to stand.

He grabbed her wrist again and pulled her back down. She lost her balance, ending up in his lap. She laughed and started to move, but he kissed her and she froze.

When she had kissed him it had been quick, impulsive, and the product of a teenage crush. This, however, was a real kiss, and only cemented the notion that he would be the one doing the seducing. If she had been able to think she would have found it a little cliché that the fireworks had started the very second his lips had touched hers.

"That should set some tongues wagging." He joked when the kiss ended.

"No kidding." She replied, her face hardly an inch away from his. "Suddenly I'm not so interested in the fireworks."

"I never was."

Lacey had never really made out with anyone, and she certainly hadn't done it in public, but she supposed there was a first time for everything. She got the feeling someone was watching when Damon moved to kiss her neck, a completely different sensation from biting it, and opened her eyes to see Katherine standing a few feet away, a look of approval on her face. Lacey blinked and she was gone. The mood was also gone and she pulled away, sitting back to watch the fireworks without a single word of explanation.


	17. The Conversation

"**The Conversation" – Waylon Jennings & Hank Williams Jr.**

The Boar's Nest was quickly becoming one of Damon's favorite places in Hazzard County. On his first stop in Hazzard it had only been a bar, owned by Boss Hogg like everything else in town, that served beer that everyone knew was watered down. Even if there had been another bar in town Damon doubted the Boar's Nest would loose any business. The other bar would have to offer something better than unwatered beer to draw customers away.

But times had changed. Boss Hogg was dead, and everything he owned had been left to the sheriff. From what Damon had heard about Boss and Rosco's fifty percent of fifty percent deal, he had figured it was safe to assume that Rosco had been thrilled with his newfound wealth. What he hadn't known until recently, thanks to Lacey setting him straight after an off-hand comment, was how close the two men were and how deeply hurt Rosco had been when Boss had died. Apparently, in his grief Rosco had given a large portion of his new fortune to various charities and had helped several families pay off debts they had owed to his late friend.

Among the changes he had made was turning the Boar's Nest over to Daisy. He still owned it, but she was in charge of everything and Rosco was happy to receive fifty percent of fifty percent of the revenue. Now the beer was laced with vervain and the bar was a more family oriented restaurant, although it still held on to all of its small town dive bar charm.

Damon was currently sitting at one of the red and white checker clothed tables, nursing a vervain-free beer, while others danced to the country music spilling out of the jukebox. It was after ten, and the atmosphere was closer to what Damon remembered from the eighties than the daytime version where small children placed tag and hid under the tables.

"How's Lacey?" Bo asked from across the table, raising his voice over the din.

Damon knew he wasn't asking for a general update. He could easily get that from Lacey. Bo wanted to know how her witch training was progressing.

"She hasn't set me on fire in a while." He joked. "I've got a friend in Atlanta that's agreed to come out and help her. There's only so much I can do. I've known plenty of…people like Lacey over the years, but I'm not one."

Bo nodded. "Does this friend have a name?"

"Bree." Damon supplied. "She's got a bar of her own outside Atlanta."

"Can I trust her?"

"More than me."

Bo sipped his beer, a drink that not so long ago would only have quenched his thirst and raised his blood-alcohol level. Now it protected him from being compelled by the very man sitting across from him. The man his daughter was living with that kept telling him he couldn't be trusted.

"To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I do trust you." Bo admitted.

Damon smiled. "You must trust me a little. Or else you would've found some other solution to keep Lacey from killing April."

Bo considered this and decided that it was true to an extent. Uncle Jesse had raised him to be a trustworthy, honest person and to extend those qualities to others. His upbringing, and the fact that his daughter had so much faith in Damon, made him want to trust him. But the fact that Damon was a vampire that flat out insisted that he couldn't be trusted conflicted with that want.

"I know you want to trust me." Damon said, as if he could read Bo's thoughts. "You probably shouldn't, but I'm going to tell you right now, no matter how many times I say you can't, you can."

"Because you have a soft spot for my daughter?" Bo asked.

It was more than a soft spot, Damon realized as he took a drink. It had started out that way, but it had changed. Especially in the two weeks that had passed since the Fourth of July. He wasn't falling in love with her. As far as he was concerned Katherine was still in the picture, but there was something he felt for Lacey that he wasn't sure how to describe.

"No." he said. "Because I basically owe you my life."

This confession surprised Bo. He set his beer down and leaned back in his chair. "And why is that?"

Damon had never told anyone what he was about to tell Bo Duke. Not even his own brother. There was only one person in the world that knew about it, and that person was long gone.

"When you're a vampire every emotion, every touch, is heightened." He began, telling Bo things he already knew. "Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes it's not. One of the perks of being a vampire is that you can turn all of that off if you want. When it gets to be too much, you just flip the switch and turn off your humanity. Therein lies the monster of the species."

Bo waited when Damon paused to drink.

"Back in the fifties one of my own relatives, whom I killed, sold me out to this mad scientist doctor that liked to conduct sadistic secret experiments on vampires." Damon said when he continued. "He kept me in a basement cell and dissected me piece by piece, over and over, for five years. It was hell."

"How'd you get out?" Bo asked, knowing without being told that Damon hadn't been released or set free.

"My cellmate and I worked out a plan and I managed to break free." He didn't want to delve too far into the details. "I tired to save him, but I couldn't. So I flipped the switch and saved myself."

"What does this have to do with me?"

"My humanity was off for almost thirty years. I didn't care about anything." Not even Katherine. "I killed whomever I felt like killing just for the hell of it. I probably wasn't quite as bad as my brother since I didn't tear their heads off, but you wouldn't have let me anywhere near your daughter. And I would've snapped your neck in a second if I decided I wanted to be near her."

"You were a monster." Bo said.

"Yep." Damon agreed. "I was a monster. And then I found myself here, in a bar, with you and your cousins. I have no idea why, but for whatever reason I turned my humanity back on after I left town. I guess I was jealous of that family bond you all have, and thought, stupidly, that I might be able to have that again with Stefan."

"Well," Bo said. "You're welcome."

Damon's eyebrows twitched up and he flashed a lopsided smirk as he lifted his beer and toasted a man that was more ally than friend.

"Another round?" Daisy asked as she approached, a bright, genuine smile lighting up her face.

Bo and Damon both drained their glasses and agreed to another round.


	18. Chapter 18

**I'm not going to bother naming the chapters after songs anymore because it's getting to difficult. I feel like I'm in danger of restricting the story simply because I can't find a song to put with the chapter. So this is simply Chapter 18. Enjoy!**

"You know everyone's talking about you, right?" Emmy asked as she scooped up a handful of buttery popcorn and shoved it in her mouth.

Lacey didn't bother to pause the movie. She and Emmy had seen _Titanic_ more times than either of them could count. "Of course I do. I live in a small, gossipy town with a roommate that has vampire ears."

Emmy smiled. "I overheard Mrs. Shelton and Mrs. Granger talking at the Boar's Nest today, and they're convinced you're living here with Damon because you're pregnant."

"That's been going around for at least two weeks." Lacey said.

"How do you know?"

"My roommate has vampire ears, remember?"

Emmy set the bowl of popcorn on the table and shifted to face her older cousin. "It's not true, is it?"

"Emmylou Lavinia Strate!" Lacey chided. "How could you even ask me that? You know perfectly well the reason why I'm here."

Emmy's face reddened a little. "I know, but…you two do seem to be getting a little…cozy."

Lacey leaned forward in a slightly threatening fashion she was certain had rubbed off from Damon. "You know me better than that, Emmylou. I'm _not_ pregnant, and if I were it wouldn't be Damon's. He's a vampire. He lost that particular ability when his father killed him in 1864."

Emmy, who had cowed some at the slightly vicious look in her cousin's usually friendly eyes, finally remembered that she was a Duke and decided she wasn't going to be intimidated. She sat up straight, a look of stubbornness settling over her face. "But you _are_ up to something, aren't you? With Damon. I saw the way he looked at you when he left earlier, and I saw the way you looked at him. Are you…sleeping with him?"

"No." Lacey said firmly and completely truthfully. "I'm not sleeping with him. And it's none of your business anyway."

"Lacey, you're…"

"Eighteen years old, living on my own, and perfectly capable of taking care of myself." Lacey supplied, steam-rolling over whatever Emmy was about to say.

Emmy opened her mouth to accuse Lacey of having some kind of romantic relationship with Damon, hoping that maybe if she pushed hard enough Lacey would crack and come clean, but she was interrupted by a knock on the kitchen door.

Lacey, still fuming, got up and practically stomped her way through the kitchen. She pulled back the curtain on the door with a jerk and was only annoyed further when she saw who was standing on her porch. Yanking open the door, she stepped outside, glaring at the woman she was quickly growing to hate, and knowing that she wasn't supposed to be outside at night. But that didn't matter right now, because the vampire that was threatening her simply by being there wasn't confined to the shadows.

"You shouldn't be here, Katherine." She warned, her voice close to a growl.

"Relax." Katherine replied calmly in her usual smug tone. "I know Damon isn't home."

"I don't know when he'll be home." Lacey said. "If you don't want him to know you're not in that stupid tomb you'd best be going."

Katherine smirked, amused. "The little witch has a backbone and a temper. I bet Damon loves that." She stepped around Lacey and stopped at the door, looking back over her shoulder. "He's at the bar with your dad. They're having a lovely time, and I doubt either one of them will be home anytime soon. I hope your mother's okay with that. Are you going to let me in, or have you forgotten your manners?"

"My manners are perfectly fine, Katherine." Lacey said. "And so is my brain. If you have something to say to me, you can say it right here on the porch."

With a dramatic sigh, Katherine turned to face Lacey, planting her hand on her hips. "Fine. I guess you get points for being safe. Then again…you do live with Damon. He's not a ripper, but…"

Lacey wanted to slap the taunting smirk off Katherine's face, but decided not to…yet. "What do you want, Katherine?"

"I just thought I'd drop by and see how our little plan is working out." Katherine said, leaning against the side of the house. "I saw what happened at the 4th of July picnic thing a few weeks ago. Now, I don't know you all that well, but Damon? I can read him like a book. I assume things are heating up between the two of you. Am I right?"

Lacey didn't want to give Katherine the satisfaction of being right, so she remained silent.

Silence was answer enough for Katherine. "Of course I am."

"Is that all?"

"Just keep up the rouse." Katherine said. "It's probably impossible to make him forget about me, but if you could just get him to love you enough to stay here that would be great. For both of us. You get to keep Damon, and I get rid of him."

"You can leave now."

There was absolutely no way Lacey was admitting to Katherine how appealing her desired result for this plan was. Partly because she was too stubborn and proud, partly because she couldn't stand Katherine Pierce, but mostly because she knew that no matter how well she executed the plan she and Damon both would end up with broken hearts. Katherine was an idiot if she thought Damon was ever going to give up on his plan to get her out of that tomb.

"If you insist." Katherine said. "I wasn't interested in a backwoods teenage movie night anyway. I am a little hurt that you didn't bother to invite me though."

Lacey rolled her eyes and watched as Katherine made her way down the porch steps, her heels ringing out in the quiet night.

Suddenly there was a loud crash and a scream from inside, and Lacey raced back in to find that Shelby and a handful of strangers had invaded her living room.

She realized quickly that the strangers were witches. One of them had Emmy with a knife to her throat, and as soon as Lacey made the slightest move to rescue her cousin she was thrown back by a violent burst of power from the others. She landed hard on the kitchen table, causing it to collapse and splinter. She felt shards of wood piercing her flesh and when she tried to get up to fight back she found herself pinned down and was almost certain they had set her on fire. There were no flames, but she screamed anyway.

Shelby walked into the kitchen and stood over her. "I know I said I like a fair fight, but I couldn't help but notice how much you seem to be enjoying your little game of house with Damon. You're betraying your people, Lacey, and it's time we did something about that. You're going to help us kill Damon Salvatore, and any other vampire we can find, or we _will_ kill every member of your family and every single one of your friends. Starting with Emmy over there. Do you really want to tell Daisy and Enos how you watched as she bled to death after my friend James slit her throat? Or maybe I'll tell them it was Damon that killed her. I'm capable of casting a spell to make them believe it. What do you think would happen then?"

The burning sensation stopped and Lacey knew Shelby was waiting for an answer. She also knew that Shelby didn't know Katherine was standing behind her, just outside the door.

_I'm going around back. _Katherine mouthed silently. _Invite me in._

Katherine disappeared just as Shelby turned around to see what Lacey was looking at. Lacey realized that she had very little time to decide if she should trust Katherine, and new very well that she may have run off instead of going around back like she had said.

"Wishing you could get up so you could make a break for it?" Shelby asked venomously. "I really doubt you could make it all the way to the Boar's Nest to alert Damon before your precious cousin over there knows what it feels like to have your heart stop beating."

"Why would you assume I want to run?" Lacey asked, out of breath from struggling against the power of half a coven of seasoned witches. "I'm a Duke. We don't run. We fight."

Shelby crouched down and slowly ran her finger down Lacey's arm. It felt like she was slicing her open with a knife. She screamed and Shelby grinned.

"How are you going to fight when you can't move, cousin?"

"Katherine!" Lacey yelled. "Come in!"

Before the witches had time to react Katherine had snapped every one of their necks. She pounced on Shelby as Lacey scrambled to her feet, splinters from the table still inside her, and rushed to Emmy's side.

Katherine sank her fangs into Shelby's neck, but was thrown off and flung across both rooms, hitting the wall hard. She got up and started to go after Shelby again, but Lacey grabbed her arm. Katherine turned on her in the heat of the moment, but Lacey was able to act quickly and subdue her with the aneurysm trick she had learned from Shelby. By the time she released Katherine from her excruciating pain, Shelby was gone.

"I could've killed her too!" Katherine complained.

"Exactly." Lacey said. "_I_ want to be the one to kill her. Besides, if you kill her you risk outing yourself."

Katherine considered this and nodded. "Good point. Are you okay?"

"We're fine." Lacey replied as a car pulled into the yard. "That's Damon. You better get out of here if you don't want him to see you."

Katherine was gone in a flash, out the back door so she wouldn't be seen.

"She wasn't part of this." Lacey said vehemently as Emmy helped her to the couch. "Damon can't know she was here. Do you understand?"

"No, but I won't mention her." Emmy said. "Whoever she was."

"What the hell happened?" Damon asked as he came in and found the pile of firewood that had once been the kitchen table and chairs. "I thought you two were watching a movie and doing each others nails. What kind of sleepovers do have in Hazzard?"

"The kind that's crashed, literally, by half a coven of vampire hating witches." Lacey said as he picked his way through the rubble in the kitchen and discovered the death toll in the living room. "Shelby showed up unexpectedly with some of her friends."

"Lacey, you're bleeding." Emmy said suddenly, worried now that Damon was there.

Lacey looked at her. "They threw me through a dining set. I'm full of very large splinters. Of course I'm bleeding."

"Well, we should get you to the hospital." Emmy said. "And away from your vampire boyfriend over there."

"She's not going to the hospital." Damon announced. "How would you explain what happened? A pillow fight got out of hand?"

"It's fine, Emmy." Lacey assured her. "I don't need a doctor. Damon can take care of it."

Emmy held Lacey's hand while Damon dug the splinters out of her body, wincing every time Lacey squeezed her hand, and watched in amazement as his blood healed the wounds. Lacey explained that she had managed to fight back and snap the witches necks with her own underdeveloped powers, conveniently leaving out any mention of Katherine, while the three of them dragged the bodies outside so that Damon could bury them in the woods because burning them might draw unwanted attention if someone happened to drive by and see the flames. While he played gravedigger the girls went back to the house and cleaned up the mess.

"They broke Uncle Jesse's table." Emmy said.

"We'll get a new one." Lacey replied flatly.

Emmy tossed a jagged chair leg into the pile by the front porch. "I'm sorry about earlier."

Lacey dragged a corner of the table with the leg still attached through the door. "So am I."


End file.
